


The Family Business

by Keldae



Series: The Family Business [1]
Category: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic
Genre: Bounty Hunter cameos, Brotherly Affection, Cameos, Clan Taerich, Consular cameos, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Dysfunctional Family, F/M, Forged Alliances, Gen, Imperius and Arkous do not like each other at all, Prequel, Shadow of Revan, Theron has no idea what the hell he just got into, Trooper cameos, force sensitive smuggler, neither does Lana, so much backstory
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-17
Updated: 2017-08-20
Packaged: 2018-12-16 10:44:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 22,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11827089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keldae/pseuds/Keldae
Summary: An Imperial agent, a Jedi Knight, a rogue smuggler, and a Sith Sorcerer, bound by destiny as much as blood, find themselves thrown into what might arguably be the greatest conspiracy the galaxy has yet faced.Or, the Jedi does not have time for this, the smuggler cracks wise, the sorcerer is the only one with a survival instinct, and the agent's still not sure how he's responsible for this.Slow-building Theron/F-Knight. Cameos from the Bounty Hunter, Trooper, and Consular.





	1. Pre-Planning

When one came down to it, the idea of launching a strike assault on Korriban's Sith Academy wasn't all that complicated on a datapad. The coordinates were set, the weaknesses identified, and the objective marked. Colonel Darok already had a strike force ready to deploy as soon as he and Agent Theron Shan could agree on a leader for the team's ground forces.

"Major Darren Kota, Havoc Squad." Darok rubbed at his chin contemplatively as the named soldier's holo-image rotated before him from the projector. "Hell of a good commander. I've got him for the initial clearing strike, but we can move him to the second wave if needed."

"This guy's not known for restraint where the Imps are concerned. We need that Academy data intact, you said- he'd bomb the planet from orbit first and destroy any intel before we get our hands on it." Theron shook his head. "Pity Aric Jorgan's not the CO of that unit, he's better at keeping a cool head around Imps." But far be it from Theron to question the military decisions of General Garza… or his father (well, aside from that whole incident with the _Ascendant Spear_ , but that was beside the point).

"Hmmph. What about the Barsen'thor… what's his name, Jakar something-or-rather?"

"Forseti. I looked into it already, but he’s currently stationed elsewhere." Theron shrugged. “Couldn’t get a straight answer out of any of the Order, either. Jedi…”

Darok snorted. "I don't suppose you've got any decent ideas yourself, Shan."

"One so far." Theron tapped a button on his datapad, producing a new face. "Captain Korin, a Republic privateer. He's the guy who went up against the Voidwolf and lived to tell the tale. I hear he's the guy who's kept the entire criminal underworld from uniting under Imperial rule."

"A spacer?" Darok frowned. "I don't know I like the idea of having some lawless smuggler leading a Republic op."

"Maybe not. Our intel indicates that he's got enough of a hate-on for the Empire that he'll throw his lot in with anyone fighting them, and right now that's us. He's already taken out a few traitors to the Republic, too- might not be a patriot, but I'm sure we can persuade him to fight with us." Theron shrugged. "Besides, looking at his record, he's a hell of a quick shot and a pilot, and knows how to sneak around. Might be handy to have."

"Hmmmph." Darok eyed Captain Korin's face for a bit longer. "He fought at Corellia, didn't he?"

"Yeah. Made something of a name for himself there- y'know, after being the guy to find Nok Drayen's fortune and all. He was on Rogun the Butcher's hit list for years, and survived."

"... Might not be bad. I got one more suggestion for you first." The smuggler's face disappeared, replaced with that of a human woman. "Jedi Master Xaja Taerich, if we can get hold of her. Pity she's not around Carrick Station too often."

Theron shrugged as he eyed the Jedi's face. He didn't have anything against the Jedi, considering he'd been raised by them, but he wasn't that fond of most of the Order as it was, his mother being a significant reason as to the 'why'. Anyone else might have said he had long-standing mom issues. The spy pulled up her dossier on his datapad and nodded. "Commander of the Jedi forces on Corellia recently. Isn't she the one who went after the Emperor directly?"

"After being one of the Jedi taken captive and resisting a Sith brainwashing attempt, which is more than what can be said for the rest of her initial team. Anyone who can infiltrate Kaas City would be an advantage for us on Korriban. She might want a shot at taking out the Academy herself, finish the job she started on Dromund Kaas."

There was a long pause before Theron shrugged. “Master Taerich sounds good. I’ll get feelers out for her and the captain.”

Darok nodded. "I'll get Havoc on standby for the second wave of the assault if we can’t get either of them, or Forseti. Hopefully Kota won't be as much of a liability as you think."

* * *

"No, I don't like the idea of sending one of the Dark Council on this expedition." Darth Arkous frowned, the ridges of his face shifting with the movement. "Darth Imperius in particular is too scholarly for this sort of endeavour."

"He is the one who fought Darth Thanaton all the way to the Dark Council chamber itself, as you recall, and won. I believe that says enough for his combat prowess." Lana Beniko looked to her master as she tapped on her datapad. Most comparatively-low-ranked advisors would need to be far more subservient to their overseers- Lana supposed she was grateful that Arkous had a higher focus on the task ahead than the traditions of rank and titles and proper submission. She was a Lord in her own right, after all- no need to pander like an Acolyte. "Besides, he's far more balanced and stable than Darth Nox is…"

Arkous scowled ferociously at the mention of the Sith assassin. There was bad blood there, apparently. "Imperius is still more likely to find the Jedi library and barricade himself in there until he'd satisfied that thirst for knowledge he seems to have, if he doesn’t just join the Order itself. What of Darth Maglion?"

"The Wrath? If you can find him, he'll still be likely to destroy everyone and everything within the Jedi Temple- our own forces included, and the intel we're trying to get!" Lana shook her head. "He'll want to press on to Coruscant and eradicate every single Jedi and their supporters if he gets that deep into Republic Space. He'd just have slightly better odds than Darth Nox at surviving."

"Although getting rid of the Jedi like this is tempting…" Arkous mused.

"Tempting, yes- but it’s too costly and will take too much time. Imperius is better at staying within boundaries in the name of efficiency, and knows to restrain himself around valuable data."

Arkous frowned as he paced back and forth through the planning room. "... Fine, Darth Imperius. Have you a backup plan should he think too fondly of his texts and artifacts to leave them behind?"

"Yes, my lord. The Champion of the Great Hunt, Shara Verhayc, could be an asset. She's killed Jedi before, and their last Supreme Chancellor. It's not like this would be unfamiliar territory for her."

"Yes, the Mandalorian. She might be useful. And if neither she nor Imperius can be of service..." Arkous tapped a command into the holoprojector. "Cipher Nine has infiltrated the Republic before. He might be able to get our forces past the Republic security protocols around the Temple itself."

"Cipher Nine? He is a good asset, but a little on the older side, is he not?" Lana frowned critically at the slowly rotating image of the spy's face. "What was his original name- Reanden Taerich, I believe?"

"With age comes experience, Beniko. Agent Taerich knows the value of hitting hard and fast where it hurts the most. And anyone still doing his job at his age is good enough for me."

Lana studied the spy for a moment, then shrugged. "If we cannot get Verhayc on the team, Agent Taerich may be a good fit. At the least, he and Darth Imperius together cannot be as difficult to work with as Darth Nox on her own."

Arkous glared at the space before him. "I would sooner work with a Republic dog than Nox."

"Of course, my lord."

* * *

Well, this was shaping up to be Theron's day. Both Captain Korin and Master Taerich had been on board Carrick Station within an hour of the plans being made, by their own designs, and seemed intrigued over the holo by the idea. The spacer sauntered into the briefing room first, dark blond hair in a purposefully-messy style that almost put Theron's hair to shame, hands tucked into the pockets of his leather jacket, habitually within easy grabbing range of both blasters on his hips. "Afternoon, gents," he said with a lazy salute as he picked a portion of the wall to lean against. "Gotta admit, most of the time when I'm talkin' to Republic military folks all official-like, it's over a table in a really cold room with me wearin' binder cuffs…"

Darok gave Theron a look, as though to ask _'Are you out of your damn mind?'_. Theron just shrugged back at the taller man, then looked to the captain. "Well, if you really want, we can switch the briefing to a suitable room for-"

"Naaah, we're good." The spacer gave Theron a cocky grin. "What's this fancy-lookin' planning business, anyway?"

"I'd rather not explain it more than once," Theron said. "We're just waiting on the last member of the team to show up and-"

The door slid open, and a tiny redhaired woman in brown robes entered the room, wide eyes looking around. If Theron hadn't already been studying the dossiers of both strike team recruits beforehand, he would have called this woman a Padawan and then proceeded to kick her out of the briefing- but no Jedi Padawan had eyes that looked that old, or a young-looking face that seemed so fatigued already. She couldn't have been older than her mid twenties, and the smuggler looked even younger. Theron himself was only a month away from turning thirty-one, but confronted with one of the youngest Masters of the Order, felt way older. "And that last person just arrived. Perfect timing. Master Taerich, Captain Korin, I'm Theron Shan with the Republic SIS- I spoke to both of you over the holo. This is Colonel Darok, Republic Armed Forces. He’s the one in charge of this op." He almost missed Captain Korin visibly tensing when he heard the Jedi's name, as though startled.

"Good to meet you in person." Master Taerich had a soft, almost-musical quality to her voice that Theron could pick up easier in person than over the holo. "What's this event you mentioned?"

Colonel Darok had saluted to the Jedi Master when she'd walked in, and now turned his attention back to the holoprojector. "We," he said with a note of gleeful anticipation in his voice, "are launching a strike assault on the Sith Academy, and you two are shaping up to be our aces for the next wave of the attack."

"Korriban?!" Master Taerich's eyes widened in surprise. "When did we gain the military strength to attack the Sith homeworld?"

Theron glanced to Captain Korin, trying to gauge the smuggler's reaction to the news. But it looked like the spacer hadn't heard Darok at all- he was frozen, staring at Master Taerich like he'd seen a ghost. Definitely not the normal spacer way of eyeballing a pretty lady, Jedi or otherwise. _Does he know her already? Maybe she's got a sister he's met or something._ The Jedi seemed to be ignoring or unaware of the smuggler's stare.

"We normally wouldn't be able to pull an op like this," Darok confessed. "But we've identified a weakness in the planetary defences- now's the best time to exploit it before it's sealed up."

Master Taerich nodded slowly. "Reasonable. What's our objective?"

Straightforward and to the point. Much like most of the other Jedi Theron had ever met, his mother included. "We're not going to be able to launch a full-scale conquering of the entire system- we don't have the resources for that. But we do have enough to grab intel from the Dark Council chambers, maybe whatever Sith relics you can find. Figured you'd be the most knowledgeable about that, Master Taerich."

"Sith artifacts aren't my specialty, Agent Shan, but I'm sure I can improvise." The Jedi gave Theron a studious look over the slight smile on her lips, and for an uncomfortable moment the spy wondered if she had made the mental connection between his name and the name of the Grand Master. "If nothing else, taking them from the Academy should hurt the Sith almost as much as any intel we take."

Theron nodded. "Exactly. If this succeeds the way we’re hoping, we’re going to gain more intel from this than from every other past SIS operation combined."

Captain Korin seemed to have drawn himself out of his daze, and was now listening with a raised eyebrow. "So while there's a Jedi in on this for dealin' with the cranky ‘saber jockeys and their shiny objects, what am I doing?"

"The Jedi in question needs someone watching her back," Theron answered. "Preferably someone who can take out the grouchy lightsaber-wielding ones at a distance. I hear you're a pretty decent slicer, too." Not half as good as Theron himself, of course. If Theron met a _smuggler_ who was a better slicing hand than he was, he'd eat his favourite red jacket.

Korin shrugged with perfectly faked modesty. "I got bored an' learned how."

"Well, if you fight like you talk, the op'll be in good hands," Darok spoke up. "Any questions from you two?"

"Is there anything in particular we're looking for?" Master Taerich asked. "And when do we leave?"

"For the second question, your shuttle's prepped now and waiting in the hangar down the hall- and I'll have one of my associates focusing on the data retrieval. Maybe you know him- Commander Jensyn."

Master Taerich nodded. "I know of him. We'll head out now."

"Good luck," Theron said as Jedi and smuggler turned to leave the briefing room- one composed and serene, one still pale and shaken and trying to pretend he wasn't. "May the Force be with you." He set back to tracking the troop movements en route to Korriban, and lasted all of thirty seconds before looking up and at Darok's contemplative smirk. "What?"

"She's cute," Darok said with a grin. "Wonder how attached she is to that Code of hers…"

"You, sir, are the creepiest man I've ever met, and I've got Sith on my kills list," Theron growled.

"Not for me, Shan!" Darok shook his head emphatically. "The girl's young enough to be my daughter. I was thinking for you- she looks like she's around your age, maybe a little younger."

"Yeah, and you missed the part where she's a Jedi Master." Theron rolled his eyes and went back to the display he was studying. "No way in hell am I getting involved with one of them."

"You need to get laid. Or are you this much of a grump normally when dealing with pretty Jedi girls?" Darok paused and grinned. "Or just jealous of that spacer she's gonna be spending time with?"

Theron scowled at Korriban's blue holo-form. "I've got better things to focus on than the odds of me- or you- getting with a Jedi woman."

"Yeah, sure. I'll just plan on settin' you up with her after this op is done."

"Not interested, Colonel."

"... Oh, you swing the captain's way instead? Don't worry, I don't judge."

Theron turned away from Darok's grin with a glare and a renewed focus on his work. Darok could try his best to muddle with Theron's non-existent romantic life (which he did _not_ need help with, thank you very much!), but the spy had work to focus on. He was a workaholic for a reason, dammit. That was about the only thing he had in common with most Jedi, including the pretty redhead boarding a shuttle for Korriban now, and it wasn't likely to change.

* * *

As it turned out, Shara Verhayc held her priorities in a slightly different order than most of the Empire's citizens, and Lana found that out the hard way over the holo. "Sorry, _dar'jetii_ , but Mand'alor's scarier than you are," the bounty hunter said, brushing a lock of brown hair out of her face. "And he's got me an' my crew elsewhere at the mo'."

"This is important," Lana insisted. "For the sake of the Empire-"

"The clans come first." Verhayc shook her head and grinned. "Good luck though." The Mandalorian's blue form winked out of existence, leaving Lana to grit her teeth in frustration.

"It's fortunate that Agent Taerich is already confirmed to be on Vaiken and knows his place with the Dark Council," Darth Arkous dryly commented as his advisor turned away from the holoterminal, trying to not look like she was ignoring the ominously-silent Lord Goh in the corner or cursing Verhayc's irreverent attitude under her breath. "Any news on the Wrath?"

"Unavailable," Lana lied smoothly. No point in Arkous not knowing she hadn't bothered trying to get in contact with the Wrath. There was a limit as to how many psychopaths she had the tolerance for in a day, and one who had all the rage of the Emperor far exceeded that limit. "However, Darth Imperius is en route to our location and should be here momentarily."

Arkous frowned. "Hmm. That scholar decided he found something more intriguing than ancient tomes?"

" _That scholar_ ," spoke a third voice, "is right here and can hear you perfectly fine." The dark-clad Darth Imperius strode in, all six feet of lanky build and a voice distorted by the mask on his face. Lana had always thought the newest induction to the Dark Council was far younger than he carried himself, but he never took that mask off- if rumours were to believed, the mask of the ancient Lord Kallig himself. Nobody was quite sure who he was, as he'd abandoned his birth name after killing Darth Zash and usurping her place. The only one who could have identified him outside of his Sith title, an instructor from Korriban named Harkun, had been found dead not long after Imperius had ascended to the Dark Council, to the rejoicing of many a Sith who had suffered under his tutelage. It was suspicious, but the academic Sith was nothing if not thorough in hiding his trail, and was currently fixing Arkous with a gaze that, if his body language was any indication, hinted that he was quite displeased.

"... My apologies," Arkous finally said, inclining his head minutely to the other Dark Lord. "It's good to have you join us. I do regret that we've never properly met before this day, Imperius- the Sphere of Military Offense is quite time-consuming, as I'm sure you understand."

"I'm sure," Imperius said flatly. "Is there anyone else involved with this mission that your associate did not wish to share details of over the holo?"

"One other," Lana spoke up, looking to the door as another man strode in. For being the only Force-blind person in a room full of Sith, Agent Reanden Taerich didn't seem to be overly concerned with his safety, and only offered polite nods to everyone else in the room. Lana supposed that the man who'd been responsible for the demise of Darth Jadus (and although she didn't want to admit it, could probably find a way to kill or humiliate every single Sith in the room) wouldn't be too worried by other Sith. "Darth Imperius of the Dark Council, Agent Taerich, one-time Cipher Nine from Imperial Intelligence."

"I am Darth Arkous," the other Dark Councillor introduced himself, "and this is my most trusted advisor, Lana Beniko. And in the corner is Lord Goh, who will be working with us. You do not require further introductions?"

"We've met," Imperius said, returning the nod back to Taerich. Lana wasn't certain, but she thought she sensed something through the Force from the other Sith, something that hinted the other was… pleased with Agent Taerich's presence.

"My lord," Taerich quietly said in acknowledgement of Imperius' statement, then looked at Lana and Arkous. "What's this about? You mentioned something about Tython?"

"Yes. If I could carry a tune, I would sing of this day. This is the day we strike a crushing blow to the Jedi, and the Republic!” Arkous sounded fairly gleeful.

Darth Imperius gave no visible reaction, aside from perhaps a slight tensing of his frame. Agent Taerich merely blinked. "The Jedi Temple? That's no small feat- I’d thought it impossible. How lax have the Jedi become in their planetary defences?"

"Not enough to properly raze the planet to its core," Arkous said (and he did sound quite regretful about that fact), "but enough to send the Republic reeling and the Jedi scurrying. A source that I personally trust has alerted me to a hole in the planetary defences. If we strike hard and fast, we can utterly crush Republic morale- annihilate it!"

“Hmmm.” Imperius seemed to tilt his head in thought. “And once we’ve taken the Temple?”

"While you concern yourselves with the assault," Lana answered, "Lord Goh will be tasked with securing the Temple. As long as we can maintain control, we’ll have access to the Jedi archives and relics and will be able to learn everything they know about the Order and the Force.” The ripples in the Force told her that Imperius was _very_ interested in that.

Taerich raised an eyebrow. "Does Lord Goh talk, or is he mute?”

"Lord Goh prefers to use actions rather that words. In that respect, he is a flawless communicator." Lana offered a small smile. "Any questions?"

Imperius and Taerich looked at each other for a moment- then the Sith shrugged. "None. We will contact you when we've reached Tython."

_That was easier than expected_ , Lana silently mused as she inclined her head to both strike team leaders. "Your shuttle awaits. May the Force serve you well." She watched both Sith and agent leave the room, and saw them enter their shuttle through the security cameras before the vessel lifted off with the rest of the second strike force.

She never saw Darth Imperius pull Agent Taerich into a private area of the shuttle and remove his mask to reveal a very young face (only in his early twenties), long brown hair, and a pair of brown eyes that perfectly mirrored the ones he looked into, now wide and worried-looking. "Dad…"

She also never saw Reanden Taerich grip the Sith's shoulder tightly, only now showing the fear that had closed around his heart when he learned of the mission objective. "Better start praying she's not there, son."


	2. All According To Plan

The shuttle jolted as it took off from Carrick Station, joining the convoy of other military vehicles bound for Korriban. Master Xaja Taerich stood at the front of the shuttle, beside the smuggler captain who'd been assigned to lead the team with her and guard her back. Having a rogue spacer on a military endeavour was odd enough, or so the Jedi thought- but one staring at her without even pretending to be subtle was worse. It wasn't even like it was a lustful look either- Captain Korin looked like he was looking at a phantom.

 _Well, we've got time._ Xaja stepped back as the shuttle leapt to hyperspace, gesturing with one slim hand. "Come, Captain. We'd best get to know each other before we're in the middle of a fight." To the side, she saw Kira start to stand up, and calmly waved for her Padawan to sit back down. The younger (yet significantly taller) woman shrugged in acquiescence and went back to her idle conversation with Captain Korin’s companion, an elegant-acting and surprisingly foul-mouthed woman named Risha.

The spacer started, then mumbled something that sounded like "Yes, Master Jedi" as he followed her into a slightly more private area of the shuttle. To Xaja's eyes and senses, the spacer's wariness, fear even, felt… foreign. He felt more like the type of person to be making wisecracks at every conceivable opportunity and not stepping on metaphorical eggshells around her.

"Does the idea of talking to a Jedi in private so scare you?" she asked as she closed the door behind them, sealing them in the planning room of the shuttle.

"Not normally," the smuggler confessed as he took a seat on a table, and not on the perfectly good chair beside it.

"And yet today is different? Are you carrying some new contraband you're afraid I'll find?"

"It's not that, Jedi."

"Then what? Out with it." Xaja leaned against the wall of the shuttle and crossed her arms over her slim frame. "Your unease is distracting."

Captain Korin seemed to be waging a war with himself before he spoke. "Where's your homeworld?"

"My- what?"

"Humour me."

Xaja frowned. "... Lavisar, I think?"

Korin's face drained paler. "When were you born?"

"Seven years before the Treaty of Coruscant."

"Who were your parents?"

"... What does this have to do with anything?!"

Korin sighed and hesitated for a moment. "When I was five," he finally said, "I saw the holonet reports of the Sacking and Coruscant's fall. I grew up on the Imp side of neutral territory, it was supposed to be a celebration day. All I remember is hearing my mother screaming, and Dad pulling me aside to tell me that I'd had a big sister once upon a time, but she was now dead with the rest of the Jedi. I didn't find out until recently that my sister had survived, and..."

"... And you think I'm her?" Xaja frowned. "There were a lot of Jedi Younglings in the Order, and a lot in the Temple when it- when it fell…" Almost two decades later and the memories still hurt to talk about.

"And how many of them look like my mother walking around again, just younger? How many of them have what my father said was my sister's first name? How many of them share my surname?"

Xaja blinked. "Your last name-"

"I don't use it much, if ever, wouldn't surprise me if that SIS agent back there didn't know it. I was born Korin Taerich, in Syward, capital of the Lavisarian system, the son of Reanden Taerich and Aerdna Drallig."

"... Aerdna Drallig was a Jedi Knight," Xaja finally breathed out as she sat down hard in a chair, eyes widening as she started to grasp the implications of what this spacer was telling her. "Her last in person contact with the Order was surrendering me to another Master as a baby. She was killed on a long-term deep cover assignment in neutral space over a decade ago."

"Killed tryin' to defend my- _our_ little brother from the raiders who attacked our home. I- I’d skipped school that day and was hiding out away from town, and it was the only reason I survived. I managed to hide on a merc’s ship and stow away to Coruscant, and Dad was offworld at the time. But Mum and Sorand… Mum died, and Sorand got taken by the raiders." Korin's shoulders slumped at the memory of his mother and little brother, then he looked up at Xaja and weakly smiled. "... You look just like her, you know."

Xaja ran her hands through her long hair and shook her head. “Brothers… wait, you said our little brother’s name was Sorand?”

“Yeah. I…” Korin hesitated. “I ran into Dad a year or so back on Corellia, had no idea he was still alive and he’d apparently thought I’d been killed or taken prisoner too. He was the one who said you were alive…”

A memory flashed into Xaja’s mind. Most of her time on the Emperor’s battle station was a hazy blur, but the face of an older man suddenly filled her thoughts, and the quiet words spoken with an Imperial accent as he’d undone the binder cuffs on her wrists. _‘You want to get out of here alive, you’ll have to do exactly as I tell you.’_

_‘What do you get out of this? Why are you helping me?’_

_‘My wife and I gave a child to the Jedi years ago. She’d be around your age now. I want assurance that she’s still alive- I’ll tell you the name to look for when I get you out of here.’_

_A smile on that man’s face as she jumped aboard her ship’s loading ramp some time later with the looming Pureblood Sith in tow, her anonymous saviour not following her. ‘I can’t follow you- I’ve got a cover I need to maintain here.’_

_‘What’s your name? Who is your child that you want protected?’_

_‘You get back to Tython alive, and our deal will be settled.’ The man smiled and stepped back as Xaja’s jaw dropped. ‘Go, child. Go!’ He vanished with the soft hiss of a stealth generator, and before Xaja could reach for where he’d just been standing, Doc had pulled her back into the safety of the ship as Kira started gunning it for freedom. ‘Father?...’_

“I… might’ve met him.” Xaja shook her head as Korin opened his mouth to ask a question. “But I have a question first. Sorand was taken as a prisoner, yes?” At her brother’s nod, she continued. “Then how did I meet a Sith Lord on Voss who introduced himself to me as Sorand Taerich a year or so back?”

Korin’s jaw dropped comically. “What?!”

* * *

The shuttle shook as the sublight engines kicked up, dropping out of hyperspace over the Tythan system. The man known to most of the Empire as Darth Imperius stared out of the small window as the target planet, a beautiful green-blue orb, appeared in the void of space. "You think she's down there?" he quietly asked the older man beside him, turning to look at him, showing a rare moment of vulnerability and fear. Without Lord Kallig's ancient mask obscuring his face and his identity, Darth Imperius was replaced by Sorand Taerich- a nobleborn, taken in a raid and forced into slavery as a child, only returning to privilege after being identified as Force-sensitive and surviving the gauntlet known as Korriban's Academy.

Reanden Taerich was one of the only people Sorand showed his face to. Most Dark Lords of the Sith didn't associate with their parents closely, assuming they hadn't already killed said parents themselves- Sorand was an anomaly in that he not only had his father alive, but treated him as a close confidant. "If she is," the older agent quietly said, "our mission parameters just changed. Priority will be in keeping her alive and getting her offworld in something other than a prison shuttle. Do you think she still remembers what you look like?"

Sorand thought back to the Jedi Knight he'd met on Voss a year ago. She'd been an even match for him in combat, and if he hadn't seen her face and almost mistaken her for an apparition of his mother, he probably would have fought her to the death. She almost hadn't believed him when he'd revealed his birth name and homeworld, until he'd put away his lightsaber instead of continuing the fight and told her to hide when he'd sensed Imperial forces converging on their location. They’d been able to briefly talk again at the market centre, long enough for him to confirm that this was in fact his older sister, and for her to express a wish that he’d been raised Jedi instead (and he’d laughed to hide how much he shared that wish). She’d even become one of only a couple of people outside of his crew to see him without his mask. That had been the first day he'd betrayed the Sith Order by refusing to divulge the identity of a Jedi Knight in his family- his sister!- and he'd repeated that treason every day since. "... Maybe? At the least, she won't forget the mask."

"That's something," Reanden agreed.

"Does she know you at all, Dad?"

Reanden frowned in thought. "The only time I met her as an adult, she was recovering from Imperial captivity and fleeing with Lord Scourge at the time of his defection to the Republic. I don't think she was focusing on my face enough to be able to remember me- and it's hard to say if she caught what I implied about my identity while I was helping her escape. No, assume she won't recognize me if she's there."

"So I'm guarding your back against what might be my very vengeful older sister when she realizes we're the commanders of the strike team destroying her home." Sorand sighed, idly turning the mask over in his hands and staring into the black eyeholes. "... This is supposed to be what the Empire's all about, what I'm supposed to be gleeful over as one of the Dark Council. Why does this feel so… wrong?"

"You've never been enough of a Dark Side adherent to be a true Sith, son." Reanden squeezed his son's shoulder. "If your mother had gotten her way, you would have been raised by the Jedi with your sister… you'd have never set foot on Korriban."

"Anyone else besides you saying that and I'd be offended."

"Listen, kiddo, the Gizka Incident is still strong in my memory. You've too soft a heart under those layers of black fabric and old masks to be as merciless as you pretend you are."

Sorand groaned. "Am I ever going to live down that gizka incident?"

"Nope."

“I still maintain that was all Korin’s fault.” The Sith gave his father a half-hearted scowl, then looked back out the window. "... You said Korin's still alive? Would he be down there?"

"I ran into him on Corellia, probably around the same time you and Xaja were meeting for the first time. He's no Jedi- he never had the same strength in the Force as you or your sister." Reanden reached around to do a weapons check, and ensure he had enough med packs on him, as the ship broke Tython's atmosphere. "He'd have no reason to be on Tython."

"I hope you're right," Sorand quietly said as he replaced the mask on his face, preparing to go to battle surrounded by people whom he didn't dare let his face be shown to. "It's bad enough risking one sibling's life with this damned op as it is." Five years ago he would have been quite excited at the idea of razing the Jedi Temple to the ground… but then he'd found his Jedi sister alive, and knew she considered the Temple to be home. Sure, he'd been terrible at keeping in contact with her since Voss, mostly because he didn't want to risk being connected to a Jedi (for his sake as well as her own), but that didn't mean he wanted to bring harm to her or her people. And his father had been an SIS operative for years, another treasonous detail Sorand had always neglected to ever mention to anyone else for the sake of keeping one parent alive.

But there was no way out of this operation without arousing Darth Arkous' ire. _Maybe this way we can keep Xaja alive if she's down there…_

* * *

"I do not care what your mission priorities are, Major," Xaja snapped at the two soldiers in front of her. Most of her ire was directed to Havoc Squad's commanding officer, Darren Kota- and there was apparently some unpleasant history there making her temper short. Well, short for a Jedi. The Zabrak beside him, whose name Korin had forgotten, had made the wise call to just stand still and not argue against the flame-haired Jedi. "We are not leaving these slaves to die here!"

"We're on a time limit before the Empire regroups," Kota retorted. "I don't want to leave them here, but they're going to slow us down."

"Then I suggest you start moving sooner." Xaja reached out a hand and deactivated the control panel for the Force-cage containing over a dozen slaves, a solid half of whom were aliens who looked like they'd seen better days outside of Sith clutches. "If they fall behind, so do you."

Korin winced to himself as he surveyed the entrance to the Academy compound. Xaja had a temper to rival what he could remember of his mother's. _She would have made one hell of a Sith,_ he inwardly mused as the Jedi returned to his side. "All sorted?"

Xaja tersely nodded. "One squad's being deployed to get the slaves back to our shuttles, and I'm dispatching Doc and Rusk to go help. Havoc's coming up behind us as reinforcement."

"Sounds good. I’ll tell Corso to go help with your people." Korin twirled both blasters in his hands as he looked around. "Bunch of the local wildlife just below us- and no, I don't mean Sith, unless the Dark Side starts turnin' people into giant toothy worm things. They've got an energy gate protectin' the entrance to the Temple itself, an' what looks like some giant-ass droid in front of it."

"Not impossible, then." Xaja swiped a lock of long hair that had come loose from her nerftail out of her face, leaving a fine smear of dust and grime across her forehead. "You doing okay?" she added, giving her newly-discovered brother a concerned look.

"I'm not dealin' with cranky 'saber jockeys up close an' personal like you are. I'm fine." Korin offered his sister (his sister. That was a weird concept to think about, but he was already finding that he liked it.) a grin before looking back to the looming Academy. "You think he's in there?"

Xaja frowned worriedly. "For his sake… I hope not. He might be a Sith, but he's just a kid."

"Sorand deserved better than this dustball," Korin muttered as he jumped down a ledge to the valley floor, Risha staying behind to pick off the wildlife from a distance. The k'lor slugs before him were agitated, and he wouldn't have been surprised to learn they favoured pistol-toting Force-sensitive humans as their favourite meal. "Let's go make sure he's nice and somewhere safe offworld."

"Like what, Dromund Kaas?" Xaja shook her head and jumped down after her brother, Kira in tow. The slugs turned, apparently drawn by the Jedi’s brighter Force-presences, and started converging on their location.

Korin raised both blasters and started firing on the descending monsters as Xaja's lightsabers ignited beside him. "Anywhere other than here."

* * *

"This place must have been beautiful once," Sorand muttered as he stalked into the ruined atrium of the Jedi Temple, eyeing the destroyed holocron-shaped artifact between the two staircases leading to the upper level. With the mask back on, he'd reverted back to his Darth Imperius persona, although Reanden was still familiar enough with his son's body language to identify regret at the destruction caused by their forces. "I can't blame the Jedi for defending this place so well." He’d left his own apprentice, an ex-Jedi herself named Ashara, outside the Temple to secure the exterior for Imperial reinforcements, although Reanden suspected his son’s motivations mostly stemmed from preventing the Togruta girl from seeing more dead Jedi. Vector had quietly agreed with him before going to join the girl, leaving agent and Sith to storm the inside of the Temple together.

Reanden nodded in agreement as he gingerly turned over a slight, feminine body in brown robes, killed by blaster-fire from the looks of it. _Not her_ , he confirmed when he saw the tangled brown hair and freckles scattered across her nose, and let the dead Jedi go. "Sense anything?"

Sorand looked up. "A couple of stronger Jedi on the upper levels, Masters by the feel of it. There's more on this level or the sublevels too, but most of them feel like-" He hesitated. "... like kids. Padawans."

"Blast it." Reanden scowled as he looked around. "The Jedi recruit way younger than the Sith do. Should have thought the Order would have children here."

"We can't kill them," Sorand muttered, and he sounded sick. "I'm not killing children, and Arkous can go kriff a rancor if he doesn't like it."

 _You're still only a kid yourself, even if you're twenty-two and on the Dark Council._ Reanden wasn't going to say that out loud though. "Let's just find that intel and get out of here before one of those Padawans decides to be stupidly heroic and push the matter."

They made it halfway up the ascending staircase before two teenagers lunged at the pair from the shadows, green lightsabers blazing in the darkness. One was a Zabrak, the other a Mirialan, and both of them fought in the same ferocious manner that only a cornered animal or a scared warrior-in-training could. "You'll go no further, Sith!" the Mirialan girl shouted as her lightsaber clashed against Sorand's red blade, brought up defensively. Her voice trembled with fear, but she was still resolved enough to cross weapons with a Darth- impressive, Reanden thought, as he dodged and rolled out of the way of the Zabrak's attack.

"You're just a child, Jedi," Sorand parried the blow and struck back, sending the Jedi stumbling with a grunt. "Shouldn't you be hiding behind your masters?"

"Yeah, except you killed them all!"

"Careful, young one. Doesn't your Code forbid the anger that I sense radiating from you?" Sorand taunted as he struck again at the Jedi's legs, putting her on the defensive.

"Don't talk to us about our Code that you do not understand," snapped the Zabrak boy as he went for a powerful overhand blow that, if Reanden hadn't dodged at the last second, would have done the agent severe damage. As it was, the stone pillar that caught the blow now featured a new gash through the stone.

"Of course not, kid. Now stand down before we have to kill you too," Reanden shouted back as he fired a warning shot at the teenager. He'd killed Sith before, and dealt with more on a daily basis. Two Padawans would be nothing.

"There is no death," the Zabrak snarled. "Only the Force."

Reanden sighed. "Suit yourself." He activated his stealth generator, startling the Zabrak into dropping his guard for a second- long enough to get in close and stab him in the torso with a paralysis dart at close range. The kid grunted in pain at the hit, then collapsed in a heap.

The Mirialan gave a cry of despair at seeing her companion fall, her guard slipping long enough for Sorand to raise a hand and give her a brief shock of Force lightning, enough to send her into a twitching pile of Jedi-robe-clad limbs on the floor. "I'm reasonably sure I was never this blasted stupid as an apprentice," the Sith muttered as he lowered his lightsaber. "Do all the great Jedi Masters start out like this?"

"Your guess is as good as mine." Reanden paused, eyeing the door that the two Padawans had come out of. It had closed behind the teenagers, but straining his ears with their cybernetic implants let him pick up muffled noises behind the durasteel plating. Two seconds of slicing into the control panel later and the door slid open, revealing half a dozen frightened children in Jedi tunics in the shadows. The oldest of them, still a couple of years younger than the well-intentioned (yet not terribly bright) pair of Padawans, carried training blades; the youngest couldn't have been more than eight years old. Reanden sighed heavily, guilt and remorse already settling into his chest. "Please tell me you're smarter than the two that just tried to kill us."

The oldest of the children raised his training blade defensively as Reanden took a step inside. "They were trying to protect us now that the Masters are dead!" he cried. "Please… they're just kids." He glanced down at the children he was trying to protect, then back at Reanden as Sorand approached behind him. "We're not a threat, we can't fight you. We're just kids and you've killed our Masters." The last sentence was uttered in the softest, most heart-wrenching whisper that a Jedi child could muster, enough to make Reanden feel sick.

The agent turned his head to look at Sorand, giving his son an anxious frown. "My lord," he quietly said, aware of the Jedi children listening attentively to every word spoken, "they aren't a threat to us, even if they are Jedi students. I don't believe them to be worth the effort of killing them." His eyes sought out any hint of his son's gaze through the damned mask, trying to convey his desperation to not kill these children. _Don't make me kill them,_ he mouthed. _I can't do it._

Sorand shifted uncomfortably, then extended a hand behind him, lifting both of the attacking Padawans with an effortless use of the Force- the Zabrak still unconscious, the Mirialan groaning and unable to fight. "I recommend you stay still and quiet until we've departed if you want to survive this," he said in a monotone as he deposited both Padawans in the storage room the other children were hiding in. "The next Sith to come by will not be as merciful as we are."

The older children descended on the downed teenagers to pull them the rest of the way to relative safety as Reanden closed the door on them again, being sure to securely lock it from the outside. "If there's a lick of intelligence among any of them," he quietly said, "they'll keep quiet and not draw attention until Jedi reinforcements arrive."

"Any idea how long that'll be?" Sorand asked as he started up the staircase to the second level, trying to not sound shaken and failing miserably to the spy’s ears.

"For their sake, I hope soon… but not so soon that we don't get out of here first." Reanden frowned as he followed Sorand up the stairs. "The Republic's not going to care that we spared a few children in light of every other Jedi or Republic soldier we've killed so far."

"Or the fact that we're going to have to kill another Master," Sorand sighed as he approached the Jedi Archives chamber, being greeted with a very displeased-looking Nautolan Jedi. "The next time Arkous comes up with something like this, he can go do the damned job himself."

* * *

The Pureblood Sith Lord (Darth Soverus, as identified by Imperial records) was dead, brought down by a combination of Xaja and Kira’s blade mastery and Korin and Risha shooting from any cover they could find in the ruined Dark Council chambers, and finally killed by Commander Jensyn (after the Sith had been defeated already, which irked Xaja immensely). With the other human Jedi beginning his search for the data the SIS was looking for, Xaja was walking through the chamber and the hallways surrounding it, looking for a particular body. Korin stayed still, watching his sister with his heart in his throat until Xaja finally stood up to her full five-foot-nothing height and shook her head. "He's not here. I didn't see him anywhere else in the Academy either."

"Then I guess he was offworld," Korin said, relief in his voice at the knowledge that his little brother's body wasn't on Korriban. "And Dad's Force-blind. He wouldn't be here either." He holstered his blasters as he gave the chamber a final, cursory look. "Anything else you wanna do in here?"

"Burn the place off the face of the galaxy," Xaja deadpanned and Kira grinned in agreement. "In seriousness, a lot of the relics the Sith have here were damaged in the initial strike. I've got a few troopers and Jedi dispatched to bring what we can salvage back to the shuttles."

"The shuttles that we're gonna be makin' our way to soon so we can get off this rock?" Korin asked hopefully. He wasn't as strong in the Force as his sister, but Korriban's darkness was a persistent itch under his skin that he couldn't get rid of. He didn't want to imagine what Xaja was feeling.

"The very same." Xaja gave Korin a lopsided, small smirk as she started walking to the turbolift. "I want to make sure those slaves and defecting Acolytes made it to the transports too, or I'll be giving Major Kota an earful."

"Is there some sorta history back there with you an' him, or…?" Korin's question trailed off at the glare he got in return. He coughed. "Right. You've never met the guy before, and he's just some gizka-brained nerfherder. Got it."

"That's right." Xaja nodded sagely. "And don't you forget it, little brother."

"You know I'm almost a foot taller than you, right?"

"You yourself said I'm older than you, so hush."

* * *

"Lord Goh is going through the Jedi Council chambers for that data," Sorand said to the holoterminal's projection of Arkous' face. Lord Beniko stood beside the Pureblood Sith, typing into a datapad. "Whatever he's looking for, he shouldn't have any problems finding it." Unless the near-mute Sith was looking for one of the small curious-looking Jedi holocrons that Sorand had stowed away for his own personal study… but no need to let Arkous know that.

"No living problems, anyway," Reanden muttered as he slowly nursed a bottle of water, dust and sweat still coating his face and clothing liberally.

Arkous chuckled. "Excellent news! This blow will send the Republic reeling like it hasn't since the Sacking of Coruscant. The Jedi Order will be years in recovering from a blow of this magnitude! I must admit I had my concerns about your involvement, Imperius, but you've happily proven me wrong about you."

"I'm trying very hard to not be offended, Arkous," Sorand growled out, using the tone that his dad called the _'I am a Dark Council member and I will electrocute you if you keep talking'_ tone of voice. "And I'm failing."

"Imperius," Arkous started to say with what could only be described as a patronizing tone of voice, "I really don't-"

"My lord!" Beniko suddenly cried out, her eyes widening in alarm. "We have reports of a Republic attack on Korriban. They've taken the Academy."

Reanden jolted out of his seat faster than a man his age should have been able to move, eyes wide with shock and mouth falling open in a way that Imperial Agents weren't supposed to do.

"What?!" Sorand and Arkous shouted in the same breath. Sorand followed that by wheeling away from the holoterminal and barging to the cockpit of the shuttle, leaving his father to finish the conversation with Arkous. "Set for course for Korriban, captain," he barked at the shuttle pilot, who was staring in shock at the new intel being streamed to her console from the Sith homeworld. "Transmit coordinates and directions to the rest of the strike force- _now!_ "

* * *

"Welcome back," Agent Shan called over with a grin as Xaja and Korin strolled back into the planning room on Carrick Station, still dusty and weary looking, but satisfied with the results of their mission.

“One pack a’ data for delivery, Colonel,” Korin cheerily grinned as he tossed over the preliminary data files the team had picked up. “Your buddy Jensyn’s workin’ on the rest of it. He says hi, an’ t’ tell you that we both deserve a giant bonus for this.” He winked broadly, making Shan snort in amusement.

"Well done to both of you. We've got our link established with the Dark Council chambers, killed one of the Dark Council members themselves, and you even liberated yourselves a few slaves and conscripted Acolytes," Colonel Darok said as he came around the holo table to salute Xaja and clap Korin's shoulder with a meaty hand, making the spacer grunt. "You’ve both done the impossible today. Yes, Captain, I’m sure that does qualify for a bonus," he added with a sigh at the smuggler’s obviously-hopeful expression.

"It's nice reminding the Sith that they're not half as immortal as they think they are," Xaja said, letting a polite smile drift over her face. "Now they can start feeling as we did after the Sacking."

"Indeed- although you couldn't have possibly been involved in that-?"

"Seven year old resident of the Temple at the time."

Darok blinked, then looked over at Shan with a triumphant laugh. "Ha! Told you she's about your age. It's perfect!"

Shan gave Darok what could be best described as a mutinous glare, then made eye contact with Xaja and mouthed _'Sorry!'_ at her.

"Wait, what?" Korin looked back and forth between Xaja, Shan, and Darok for a minute, then burst out laughing. Over the flight home, the siblings had agreed to keep their kinship hidden for the time being, and now Korin was going to use that opportunity to poke fun. "Good luck with her, Agent. Good looker an' all, but got a temper an' walks an' acts like she's got durasteel up her- OW!"

Xaja looked at the datapad that had mysteriously flown from the table to make contact with her brother's shoulder and blinked innocently. "The Force works in mysterious ways, does it not, Captain?" she asked, as sweetly and serenely as a Jedi could.

Shan snorted in stifled amusement and went back to data analysis.

"On to serious matters," Darok said, still smirking a bit, "with the data you've pulled from Korriban, we'll be able to better analyze the Empire's movements, start getting near that actual final victory that-"

Sirens blazed, and Shan's face went white as he ran back to a terminal, frantically typing into a console and blinking in a way that suggested he was sending commands to his cranial implants. "No, no, no! Not already!"

"What's going on?" Xaja snapped, going back into Jedi commander-mode.

"They've launched a retaliatory attack on Tython. The Temple's burning!"

 _The Temple's burning. The Temple's burning._ For a second, Xaja was seven years old again and watching Coruscant fall, the Temple a burning ruin somewhere behind her as she'd fled into the Works, leaving hundreds of dead Jedi behind her and losing her world to flame and red blades and- _no. Not this again. Never again!_ "Captain, with me!" she shouted as she turned and raced out of the briefing room, Korin hot on her tail as they ran back to their shuttle, leaving Darok giving refuelling and redeployment orders to their strike squadron. _How the hell could the Empire have reacted so fast?_

_Unless they were on Tython while we were attacking Korriban… but how is that possible?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes:
> 
> The Agent, Inquisitor, Smuggler and Knight are all my characters, as is the Warrior if/when he shows up. The Trooper, Bounty Hunter, and Consular characters belong to friends of mine who I'm stealing for the purposes of this fic. (There's some crossover here with the roleplay forum where all of them first came about...)


	3. The Dust Barely Settles

“I kriffing hate Sith,” Korin growled as he prodded the silent Sith Lord’s body with his boot, filling it with a few more blaster bolts for good measure. “Especially creepily silent sadistic bastards like this one.”

“That makes two of us,” Kira said as she deactivated her saber-staff, face pale even in the shadows.

“Three. And I want a blasted word with whoever the Force-damned gutless coward was on the holo,” Xaja muttered her agreement as she paced through the ruined Jedi Archives, still looking for the bodies of her fallen brethren in the Order. So many had already been removed from the Temple ruins and laid out for cremation away from the Sith bodies, but the Temple had been fully populated before today. She knelt to close Master Oric’s lifeless, glassy eyes, focused on the ceiling in death. “How the hell did they retaliate so fast?”

“Dark Sithly magic is my guess. Or they were already here while we were there.” Korin scowled at the ruined ceiling, then gave Xaja a worried look. “... You doing okay? Either of you?”

“This the hour for stupid questions?” Kira asked, giving Korin a scowl.

Xajai bitterly laughed as she carefully picked up the shattered fragments of a holocron. “Am I okay? My home was just attacked and burned by the Sith again, in a location they shouldn’t have been able to get at, and I’ve just watched four dozen members of my Order be removed on gurneys. I’m just perfectly fine.”

Korin winced. “Okay, yeah, bad question.” He glanced over as Major Kota marched into the ruined chamber, taking care to not stumble on the wreckage. “Where’s your people at, soldier-person?”

“Securing Kalikori Village and making sure there’s no other Sith hiding in the old ruin, besides the ones we’ve captured,” Kota grunted. He looked around the ruined chamber, the Force shifting around him to betray dismay and grief that were tangible even to Korin’s limited abilities, then went on. “The Twi’leks weren’t the target of this attack, but they still took a beating.”

“Casualties?” Xaja asked as she put down the holocron shards.

“Half a dozen foolhardy idiots who thought they could defend their home from the Imps. We found some Jedi survivors in the village, mostly archeologists from Kaleth or Padawans on their Trials. We also found a few Younglings who’d hidden inside the Temple and survived.”

Xaja looked up sharply at that as Kira whirled around. “Where? How?”

“Looks like they were locked into a storage room from the outside. Maybe one of the Knights told them to hide.” Kota turned to exit the chamber. “If you want to talk to them, they’re downstairs beside what used to be the quartermaster’s lodgings.”

Xaja pushed by the taller soldier and hurried out of sight, Kira in close pursuit. Korin glanced at Kota, looked back at Risha, shrugged, and hustled after his sister. Despite his lack of familiarity with the Temple layout, it didn’t take him too long to find the bright flare in the Force that was her, a flame against the normal greys and clouds that made up what of the Force he could sense. The spacer arrived just in time to hear the Jedi talking with a Mirialan teenager, curled up in an oversized robe and trembling. “... shocked me and stabbed Kich with something. I don’t know why they didn’t kill us, the one was a Sith Lord, they should have killed us all!”

“Shhh. I’m grateful they didn’t.” Xaja’s voice was the epitome of Jedi calmness and serenity. “You said they were the ones to lock you in that storage room?”

The teenager nodded. “They… they said we weren’t worth the effort, but Ra’leh, she said that she felt things coming off them… like sadness and guilt.”

“Maybe they were conscripts who didn’t want to be here at all,” Kira mused, frowning in thought. “It’s not impossible.”

Xaja shrugged. “Maybe. Do you remember what they looked like, young one?” she asked the Mirialan again.

The child nodded. “The Sith was tall and humanoid, and he sounded male. He had a mask on that hid his face, but I remember what that looked like. It looked like an ancient skull. The human with him was older, probably Grand Master Shan’s age, and we couldn’t feel him in the Force, like he was Force-blind or knew how to hide. He had a blaster and knives.”

“No confirmation as to the unmasked man’s identity, but we’re looking into it,” Kota spoke up as he approached the group. “The Sith we ran through our checks, and he looks like he’s Darth Imperius, going by that mask alone.”

“Darth Imperius?” Xaja frowned.

“Newest member of the Dark Council. Our intel says he killed Darth Thanaton for the seat not too long ago.”

“... So not a hapless conscript then,” Risha finally said. “Why would one of the Dark Council spare Jedi kids, or order a soldier under his command to spare them?”

Korin himself could only shrug. “And not that I’m discounting how pleased we all are that they didn’t murderize said Jedi kids- I want to know how the hell they got here so damn fast. It doesn’t make any sense, unless…”

“Unless they were already here,” Xaja whispered.

* * *

Sorand knew his father was a well-travelled agent, with familiarity in different languages and customs and filled with more life experiences than most of the rest of the galaxy. But the Sith had never before fully appreciated how many curse words in different tongues Reanden Taerich knew and could use in one breath. Apparently not even his Joiner companion Vector had fully recognized the old agent’s linguistics abilities, and was visibly trying to not cringe.

If anywhere was a good place to swear long and loudly, the ruined Dark Council chambers on Korriban more than qualified.

“How the hell did this happen?” Reanden finally snarled in Basic, firing one final satisfying shot at the holotransmitter that the smug-looking Republic soldier had just vanished from. “Isn’t Korriban supposed to be one of the three most tightly guarded planets here and populated exclusively by Sith?”

“I’d like to know too,” Sorand growled as he stepped over the Jedi Commander’s body, briefly glancing down at the face. Male, brown hair, taller and bulkier than Sorand- definitely not one Xaja Taerich. “How did the Republic leaders go from ‘requiring assistance to get dressed in the mornings’ to retaliating so quickly?”

“There’s no conceivable way this could have been avenging Tython, not so soon,” Reanden muttered. “With how much work they clearly had to do to get here, they needed time. More time than what would have been afforded with our attack. And the Republic’s way generally isn’t to immediately strike back so hard and fast, it’s to sit back and lick their wounds first.”

“Could it be they attacked at the same time we were on Tython?” Ashara spoke up from where she’d been circling the chamber on a final security check. “It’s unlikely…”

Sorand frowned behind his mask. “They just happened to attack at the same time that we did? That’s too much of a coincidence.”

“My thoughts precisely.” Reanden stalked to a mostly-intact security console, retrieving a slicing spike from his boot. “See if you can get in touch with Arkous and Beniko. I’m going to see what data I can pull from here about the Republic forces that attacked.”

Still quietly fuming at the turn of events, Sorand pulled his own holotransmitter from his belt and punched in Beniko’s frequency. “You and Arkous had best have some good answers for me,” he growled without preamble as soon as the blonde answered the call, the Darth Imperius voice in full effect. “How the hell could your intelligence be so poor as to let us believe the Republic wouldn’t be able to so much as fire a shot at us?”

“I don’t understand it myself,” Beniko answered, sounding shaken. “My sources led me to believe this would be a crushing defeat for the Republic. I don’t-”

“- Have an answer for why Korriban was seemingly unguarded so the blasted Jedi could waltz into the Academy and take what they wanted?” Sorand’s snarl cut the other Sith off. “Where is Arkous?”

“He’s compiling all the data we’ve collected from all of… this.” Beniko glanced to the side, then returned her gaze to Sorand’s mask. “We should be ready when you and Agent Taerich return from Korriban.”

“I expect you will be,” Sorand threatened as he closed the connection, knowing Beniko was more than intelligent enough to recognize what would happen if the data and excuses weren’t primed and ready. He had a reputation already of being the quietest, most diplomatic member of the Dark Council, but he hadn’t survived the Academy or killed Thanaton and Zash through charm and being inconspicuous. He’d survived with the quietly seething rage that had fostered within him for years and letting it out when the situation called for it… like now. When he found the Republic soldier on the holo, or whichever Republic agent had-

“Sorand.” Reanden sounded shaken enough to draw the Sith out of his fury. The old agent was still staring at the security console, shock and fear and disbelief wafting off of him through the Force. If it had been anyone besides Ashara and Vector standing within hearing distance, Sorand would have panicked over the voicing of his birth name- as it was, he still tensed, grateful they had already been sworn to silence on the matter. “You need to see this.”

Curiosity briefly won out over the anger, and Sorand made his way back to the console. “What are you looking- no,” he whispered when he caught a glimpse of the monitor. Voss had not been so long ago that he didn’t recognize the flame-haired woman on the screen, frozen on one of the still-functioning cameras’ playback function. His anger faded into shock. “She was here?”

Ashara had followed her master on light feet, and blinked in surprise when she saw the image. “But that’s Knight Taerich! I met her briefly on Taris and-” She saw Sorand turn, felt the glare directed at her through the mask, and paled. “My apologies, my lord.” She scurried back to join Vector, well out of lightning range, letting Sorand face the console again without the distraction of his student.

“Both of them were.” Reanden tapped a button on the console, and the image shifted. The human man who’d been seen beside Xaja in the first image was now more visible, his head raised and face open to the camera. “Your sister and brother led this assault.” He bitterly laughed and raked a hand down his face, glove catching on the stubble over his chin. “If this isn’t the mother of all ironies…”

“Korin?” Sorand stared at the image, for a second forgetting about the destruction as he saw his older brother for the first time in over a decade. _He’s still alive! _raced joyously through the Sith’s mind,__ followed by _ __He’s working with Xaja___ and _ __They’re the ones who destroyed the Academy?!_ __ “How did they…”

“They attacked Korriban at the same time that we were attacking Tython.” Reanden shook his head. “This isn’t a coincidence, son. This smells of deliberation.”

“Someone was coordinating with the Republic attack leaders,” Sorand breathed out as the pieces came together.

“There’s a traitor in our midst,” Reanden nodded. “And so far, the only people who I’m convinced aren’t involved are you, Vector, and Ashara. We need to step carefully until we know who, and why.”

Sorand might have been the diplomatic one, but Reanden Taerich hadn’t survived as long as he had without cunning and the knowledge of when to bide his time. The Sith nodded. “We have two suspects we need to talk to first. Let’s get back to the Fleet.”

* * *

"There’s something we’re missing,” Xaja snapped as she paced back and forth through the situation room, her Jedi serenity reduced to a poorly-held temper as she took her frustration out on a remarkably-impassive Darok. Oh, she knew Jedi weren’t supposed to demonstrate such emotion as she was now, but considering her home and her Order had just been attacked, she figured she had a valid excuse. Korin stood behind her, not leaning on the wall as he previously had been, but actually straight and alert and deadly serious. “How could the Imperials have struck back so quickly? It makes no sense!”

“I assure you, we’re looking into the matter, Master Taerich.” Darok raised a hand placatingly as Xaja opened her mouth. “Agent Shan will be working with the SIS to figure out how the Imps struck back so quickly- isn’t that right, Shan?”

Agent Shan glanced over for a nanosecond at the bigger soldier. “Yeah, of course.” He looked back at the Jedi and the smuggler, and Xaja could feel his unease and, under the surface, his anger tangibly through the Force. “I want answers as badly as you do, Master Taerich… Captain Korin. You’ll be among the first to know the second I hear anything.”

“See, the investigation’s in good hands.” Darok smiled like the situation was already resolved.

“You ain’t taking this half as seriously as even I am, and I ain’t even officially Republic,” Korin growled. “You’re just gonna let this go like it’s some sorta minor inconvenience?”

“Hardly, Captain. But this isn’t something you or Master Taerich needs to worry about while the SIS looks into it. You two are heroes, and heroes deserve to be recognized.” Darok reached behind the holoterminal and produced two ceremonial boxes, the likes of which Xaja had already seen and been bestowed with before. “Both of you have more than earned the Medal of Honour. This prestigious award has never been bestowed upon anyone has quickly as today, but you two have earned it.” Behind him, Shan glanced sharply to the boxes, then at Darok, then looked back at Xaja and gave her an obviously disbelieving, incredulous frown. He understood this as well as Xaja did… which was to say, not at all.

The petite Jedi pushed the proffered box out of Darok’s hand, unaware of her eyes flashing dangerously. “Kriff your medal. I want answers for why my home just burned while we were attacking the bloody Academy!”

Something in Darok’s Force-signature flickered briefly, something that made Xaja’s danger senses kick into high gear. But then he smiled and patted Xaja’s shoulder with a heavy hand that made the small woman stagger. “And you’ll get your answers in time, Master Jedi. But now it’s out of your hands- no need to concern that pretty head of yours about it. Now,” he added as he stepped away, Xaja sputtering with suppressed fury and Shan’s jaw dropping for a second before the agent regained control of his reactions. “I need to contact my superiors about this. It’s been a pleasure working with both of you. Please pass along word to the Jedi Council that they’ll have our support.”

“I’ll bet,” Korin flatly intoned.

“Those aren’t-!” Xaja snapped as she took a step forward, clearly not done with this conversation yet.

Darok turned as he started to leave the briefing room, and the darkness in his eyes made Xaja go cold with danger-sense again. “Your part in this is done, Master Jedi. Let the experts in this handle it from here.” And then the soldier was gone, and if it hadn’t been for Korin literally holding Xaja back by the elbow, the Jedi would have been gone after him to finish losing her temper in a completely un-Jedi-like fashion. As it was, the petite redhead could feel herself shaking with fury… and the fatigue, both physical and emotional, of the last two days wasn’t helping in the least.

Shan made to leave the briefing room, then paused by Xaja and Korin, taking care to make eye contact with both siblings. “I don’t know about either of you,” he said, sounding as drained as if he’d been on the battlefield himself, “but I could use a drink.” Without waiting for a response, he continued out, turning left to head for the main cantina section of the Fleet station.

Korin finally eased his grip on Xaja’s elbow, wisely not commenting on the irony of a spacer having to hold back a Jedi from doing something reckless and possibly violent. “Why is everyone from the Republic military such a pretentious dickless patronizing _sleemo_?” the smuggler complained. “He’s as bad as some of the Imps I’ve met!”

Xaja didn’t answer her brother for a few long minutes, closing her eyes and trying to force herself back to something approaching Jedi serenity. There is no emotion, there is peace… “This isn’t adding up,” she finally said when she opened her eyes again. “He knows more than he’s letting on. If anyone’s our best chance for getting information, it’ll be Agent Shan.”

“Guy looked as confused as us. I ain’t sure he knows much more than we do, but an SIS spy workin’ with us can’t be a bad thing.” Korin started walking to the corridor outside the briefing room. “He said he needed a drink- let’s go see if we can join him. I dunno, it might further the plot.”

“Better than sitting here with no information,” Xaja agreed as she followed her brother out. “There is no ignorance, there is only knowledge.”

“Right.” Korin cringed. “I can’t believe I just had to agree with part of the Jedi Code…”

* * *

If being in a small room with two members of the Dark Council (and another Sith advisor) wasn’t perilous enough for a Force-blind spy of the Empire, then being in that same small room with both members of the Dark Council furiously arguing with each other (and the Sith advisor casually trying to stay the hell out of the way) was a mortal danger. Reanden knew Sorand would never willingly bring him to harm, and would probably try to protect him should Arkous lose his temper on the one person here who didn’t really have that good a chance of fighting back against a Sith, but he still had to fight the urge to duck behind the holotransmitter until the crackling in the air abated.

“And I’m supposed to trust your information after your agents karked up and nearly lost Korriban to the Republic?” Despite the mask covering Sorand’s face, Reanden suspected the young Sith’s eyes were blazing sulphuric yellow in his anger. “I could achieve better results by putting my apprentice in charge of this investigation!”

“Which one?” Arkous spat. “The silent freak or the ex-Jedi alien?”

“Either one would give me better news than anything I trust coming from you,” Sorand growled. “Do you honestly expect myself or my agent to take our commendations and quietly skulk away while the matter remains unsettled? I will see answers for this!”

“I already have my agents on this,” Arkous snarled. “Lord Beniko will pursue every avenue of investigation I set her upon- right, Beniko?”

Lord Beniko stepped forward at the mention of her name and bowed toward Arkous, but her golden eyes drifted to Sorand and Reanden. “Of course, my lord. I will not rest until I have the answers you seek.” Something about the way she spoke triggered something in Reanden’s well-honed spy senses, like she was addressing him and his son specifically. Her sharp, wary glance back to Arkous confirmed it for the spy- she didn’t trust him.

“There, you see?” Arkous snatched up his datapad and stalked toward the exit. “Your part in this is over, Imperius. Leave the investigation to me.” Then he was gone, and one of the clouds of darkness that Reanden could feel pressing against his brain and slowly suffocating him was gone.

Lord Beniko started to follow Arkous out of the room, then paused. “This investigation is already driving me to drink,” she said with a sigh as she looked up at Sorand. “One way or another, my lord, you will have answers. I hope to have them for you soon.” She offered both the younger Sith and the Force-blind spy with him a bow, then took her leave- going, Reanden noticed, in a different direction than what Arkous had gone.

The older man waited until both Sith were out of earshot, then touched Sorand’s shoulder. “I don’t need the Force to know she doesn’t trust him,” he murmured.

“And I don’t need a spy’s training to know he’s hiding something,” Sorand agreed, forcing himself to relax his tense muscles under his father’s hand. “Kriff what he had to say- we need to look into this ourselves.”

Reanden nodded. “I think Beniko might be a good place to start. She’ll have more insight into his thoughts and activities than we will. How well can you drink in that mask?”

“I have a workaround for it. Why do you ask?”

“She dropped a hint about drinking when she left, son. We may be able to find her in the cantina.” Reanden started walking for the door. “Even if we don’t, I need a bloody drink. Come, I’m buying.”

“Sounds good to me. I just need to stop at my ship first.”

* * *

Agent Shan was already at the cantina, sitting in a quiet booth in the corner with three drinks and a handheld holotransmitter before him, showing a recording of a familiar figure talking with a stranger. “That’s the Grand Master,” Xaja said as she stopped at the table, giving both Master Satele’s figure and Shan a questioning look.

“Safe and sound, nowhere near Tython.” Shan gestured for Xaja and Korin to sit down as he put away the transmitter. “We aren’t exactly close, the Jedi don’t really support those types of attachments, but it doesn’t stop me from checking in on her.”

Korin blankly stared, nearly making Xaja facepalm. Instead, she just nodded. “I had a suspicion you were related somehow. You share some traits with her- your bone structure, your mouth, that eyebrow quirk you’re doing right now.”

“And somehow missed the Force gene in all the other traits she passed down to me.” Shan shrugged. “I might not have any of the Jedi’s special talents, Master Taerich, but I’ve got enough instincts to know something doesn’t smell right. Going off your reaction alone, I suspect you’re not willing to just take your medal and walk away from this like Darok’s hoping.” He pushed two of the still-sealed bottles to his table-mates and took a sip from the one opened drink. “Sorry- wasn’t sure what you two drank, if anything.”

“I’m good with anything that doesn’t smell like it came off Hutta.” Korin cracked his bottle open and nodded at the contents. “Juma works for me. Any word on who that creepy Sith was on the holo who we spoke to?”

“Not yet, but we’ve got an ID on the Sith Lord in the Temple. You might be interested to know he’s on the Dark Council- Darth Imperius.”

Xaja and Korin exchanged a look. “We heard something to that effect from one of the Padawans who survived the attack,” Xaja finally said. “They said it was Imperius and another person.”

“I’m running that man’s identity through our databases, but so far nothing’s come up. I suspect he might be a leftover from Imperial Intelligence.” Shan pushed a datapad across the table. “We picked up a surveillance image of him. Either of you see this guy before?”

Xaja frowned when she saw the image. It was grainy and dark, and he stood in profile against the camera angle. But she could tell he was tall, about Korin’s height, and older. Something looked familiar about him, but her memories were still so blurry after the Emperor’s station… She finally shook her head. “I can’t place him. Captain?” She looked over, and saw Korin frozen, his face pale. “Korin?”

Korin seemed to suddenly jolt out of whatever shock-induced trance he’d been in, and shook his head. “Ain’t somebody I’ve fought before… well, not sober anyway.”

Shan’s amber eyes narrowed. “Your reactions tell me you know him. Out with it, Captain- this might help us figure out how Tython fell so fast.”

There was a long pause before Korin’s shoulders slumped. “He is Imperial Intelligence, or was anyway. His name’s Reanden Taerich, used to be known as Cipher Nine.” He looked up, hazel eyes betraying his fear. “And he’s my father.”

Shan’s eyes widened exponentially. “... Well, that makes things more complicated.” He paused. “... Taerich?” The spy looked closely at Korin, then at Xaja. “That’s less of a common name in Republic space than Shan is.”

Xaja hesitated, then nodded. “We figured out we’re probably siblings on the way to Korriban. Of course, we appreciate your discretion on the matter. But this…” She looked over at Korin as Shan nodded his agreement. “Are you sure he’s our father? I might’ve met him, but I can’t remember him.”

“Dead certain. An’ before you ask, no, I don’t have a way of reaching him.”

Shan rested his face on his palm and sighed. “Wonderful. All I need is for you two to be related to Darth Imperius.”

“Haven’t seen any images of him, so I can’t say for sure.” Korin cheekily answered.

In response, Shan merely extended his other hand and flicked to the next image on the datapad, featuring a tall, dark-clad humanoid with a distinctive mask covering his face, and Xaja stared for a long moment before she dropped her forehead into her hands. “So unless some other Sith killed him and stole that mask, Darth Imperius might be our baby brother. Please don’t ask how I know this.” Korin choked on his drink at the words, and promptly snatched the datapad to get a better look.

Without raising his head, Shan indulged in a long and colourful list of expletives from a few different languages.

“Don’t look at us, we didn’t ask to be born into what may actually be the most dysfunctional family in the galaxy.” Xaja idly ran her fingertip over the rim of her bottle. “What’s our next step?”

Shan raised his head back up. “Well, hypothetically I’d recruit somebody from outside the system- somebody, or multiple somebodies, who are used to working outside the lines and getting results. Then I’d find out anything I could about that Darok and that Sith you talked to, look for any connections, and see if my new friends’... extended family have any other connections to this. After that, I’d contact my new friends and we’d go get to the bottom of all of this. This is, of course, all hypothetically speaking.”

Korin grinned knowingly and winked. “Of course.”

“It’s been great chatting with you two,” Shan said as he stood up. “We’ll have to do this again sometime- and don’t worry, your connections to Cipher Nine and Imperius don’t go any further than me. I’ll see you around.”

“Looking forward to working with you, Agent Shan.” Xaja inclined her head as the spy started to leave the booth.

Shan paused and glanced back over his shoulder. “We’re gonna be working together a lot over the next while, Master Taerich, and I’m not fond of formality. Call me Theron.” He smiled, and the expression seemed softer and gentler, or was it just the lighting in the cantina?

“Then my name is Xaja, and this is my brother Korin.” The redhead smiled as her brother waved two fingers in a casual salute. “We’ll see you around… Theron.”

Agent Shan- no, Theron- smiled and headed out, and Xaja was left with the task of ignoring the flutter in her stomach, and the curious (and too-prying) grin on Korin’s face. She was a Jedi, dammit, and while Theron Shan was living proof that a Jedi could fall for the temptations of love, it was never going to happen with her. She hardly knew the man!

* * *

Sorand still refused to show his face on the Fleet, out of a high sense of paranoia. But he was more than willing to remove the suffocating mask for a little while, and replace it with a hood drawn low over his face, his features hidden in the shadows. Without Imperius’ trappings, at first glance he might have appeared as a normal Sith Lord, just one of the many quiet shadows in the Empire. Certainly, people didn’t clear out of his and Reanden’s way like they would have for Imperius’ mask, but that suited both father and son fine. Reanden stopped by the bar, ordered three Corellian ales, and brought them over to the booth that Sorand had claimed. “You sure she’ll be here?” the Sith quietly asked as he took one of the bottles and brought it up to his lips.

“Reasonably, yes. I get the feeling she wants to talk to us privately. If she’s not already here, she’ll find us soon enough.” Reanden paused. “And by that I mean me. I took care to be visible this time on the security network.”

“How do you know how to avoid the security network in here?...”

“That’s my job, son. I’ve gotten through the entire station without being picked up on holocams before. Twice.” Reanden grinned. “Remind me that Kaliyo still owes me fifty credits for that.”

Sorand’s lips quirked upward in a smirk under the hood, before his head tilted. “... How many do I owe you if Beniko shows up in a timely manner?”

“The next round of drinks.”

“Blast it.” The hood tilted to the side. “She just arrived.”

Reanden followed the hood’s gaze and stood up when he caught sight of Beniko’s blonde hair. “My lord,” he quietly said as soon as he was within hearing range of the Sith, who turned quickly at the sound of his voice.

“Oh, you came. Good. We’ve much to discuss.” Beniko fell into step beside Reanden as the agent led the way back to the booth, and sank into the chair indicated by Sorand’s wave. Her golden eyes glanced at the little bit of visible skin under the hood, and lingered for a moment in obvious curiosity, but she turned back to the task at hand quickly. “I know that I have been quiet, but I do not wish for you to mistake my silence as apathy. Truthfully, I have a great deal to say- and now that we’re alone, we can have a proper dialogue.”

“You do not trust Arkous.” Sorand’s voice, no longer distorted by the mask, had dropped to what Reanden privately thought of as the Imperius voice- lower in pitch and more mature than one would have expected of a twenty-three-year-old.

Beniko shook her head. “No. He was not entirely forthcoming with me for his reasons behind the attack on Tython. It was a raid to collect one particular item- an artefact.”

“What manner of artefact are we talking about?” Reanden asked, leaning forward. “A relic? Holocron? Some other Force-centric item full of mystical secrets that a non-sensitive like me has no clue of?”

“The less we’re in the dark, the more we can determine Arkous’ motivations,” Sorand agreed.

Beniko frowned. “I wish I could say. Whatever it was, he was in a rage until Lord Goh found it. And what’s more- I do not believe the Republic’s attack on Korriban was a retaliation. I suspect it was staged to happen at the same time.”

Reanden glanced over at Sorand’s hood, then slowly nodded. “We had come to the same conclusion. For the Republic to attack while we held the Jedi Temple- it makes no sense.”

“Nor should it. We need more context, and I’m convinced that it exists somewhere. We’ve only to find it.” The blonde Sith stood back up and began pacing- apparently she didn’t take ‘sitting still and thinking quietly’ too well. “There’s… something new in the Force, something I’ve never sensed before. It’s… growing. Writhing. It’s nowhere, and yet everywhere all at once.”

Sorand frowned, and Reanden could sense it even with the hood covering his face. “I should be able to sense that, and yet I feel nothing. Are you certain?”

Beniko nodded. “I… it feels like I can sense it because I’m tied to it somehow, perhaps through my association with Darth Arkous. But… I feel that the Empire is in terrible danger.” She appeared shaken- perhaps it was a Force-thing that Reanden didn’t understand, and would never fully realize. “I’m used to offering my counsel to others, but now I turn to you, Darth Imperius- and you, Cipher Nine. Will you help me?”

“We will.” Sorand nodded in agreement at Reanden’s words. “We will not let the Empire fall, or let these questions go unanswered.”

Beniko seemed to deflate with relief. “Thank you. I need to return to Arkous’ side now before he suspects my loyalties have shifted, but I will remain in touch and pass along any new information that I turn up. I promise.”

“We’ll keep our eyes open as well, Lord Beniko.” Sorand inclined his head minutely to the blonde- a huge sign of respect, coming from one of the Dark Council. “You’re hardly alone in this investigation.”

“Please- call me Lana. We’re in this together now.” Lana bowed lowly. “I look forward to working with both of you.”


	4. Nobody Expects the Manaan Inquisition

_Two weeks later…._

** <<So Theron’s not yet gotten into contact with me directly, but I ran into his droid. Or more like Guss ran into the droid. Literally. Anyway, dude’s apparently on Manaan doing some snooping. Wanna go visit?>> **

** <<Poor droid! Sounds good to me. He send you a message too about Darok’s activities?>> **

** <<Yeah, something about isotope-5 being used in the Empire and known smugglers in the Outer Rim. I’m pretty sure I’m on that list, but so far there’s been nothing coming at me, legal-like or otherwise. And Guss said something not nice about you that I’m not repeating, but it’s funny as hell.>> **

** <<Hmmm. It’s not a lot to go on, but if Theron’s found something on Manaan, it’s worth looking into. Meet you there? Tell Guss he can bite me if he dares.>> **

** <<Did you know Mon Cals turn translucent when they go pale? Corso’s dying laughing. Be there soon.>> **

** <<Tell Corso if he dies, I’ll get Doc to do mouth-to-mouth on him because I’m not doing any mystical Jedi life-giving anythings on him.>> **

** <<You spoil all his fun. Does Doc know he’s been volunteered?>> **

** <<Judging by the glare I’m getting, I’d say yes. And tell Corso I’m a Jedi. Spoiling his fun is my job.>> **

* * *

 “There you are.” Theron turned from the console he’d been typing into as a tall, lanky smuggler and a petite flame-haired Jedi entered his temporary workspace on Manaan. “I was just about to tell my droid to go find you two, and he said Korin at least was en route. Perfect timing.”

“One of the many fine services we offer,” Korin said as he took a bow. “Whatcha got for us?”

“Some very interesting data.” Theron gestured to the console as he led his two fellow conspirators over. “I did some looking into any connections between Darok and that Sith you spoke to on the holo after you took Tython back. His name’s Darth Arkous, and he’s another member of the Dark Council.” The spy glanced over with a concerned look. “I haven’t been able to determine if Darth Imperius was actively conspiring with him yet or not. As for your father- that’s anyone’s guess.”

Xaja shared a look with Korin, then nodded. “We understand,” she quietly said. “If they’re part of the masterminds behind this… we’ll deal with it when the need arises.”

“That might be sooner than later,” Theron muttered under his breath. “Those attacks were purposefully coordinated to happen at the same time. Remember how Darok said we were looking for sensitive data? Nothing has been turned over to the SIS.”

“None? That’s highly suspect.” Xaja frowns. “What was the point of that initial attack if not to get data and kriff with Imperial morale?”

“The attacks were staged to hide their true purpose.” Theron leaned back against the console. “They were robberies.”

“Robberies?” Korin blinked. “Surely there had t’ be an easier an’ less destructive way of goin’ about robbin’ the place. What’d they steal?”

“After you left Korriban, Jensyn’s team took an artefact from the Academy before the Sith retaliation force got there. I’m not sure what the item exactly is, but it’s Rakata in origin. The Imps lifted a similar relic out of the Temple just before you got there.”

Xaja frowned. “Why didn’t I hear about this? A Rakata item being stolen by the Imps is worrying.”

“Could be any number of reasons.” Theron shrugged. “There might’ve been another conspirator in the Order working with Darok who’s restricting information to you, or you might not have a high enough clearance to know, might be a Jedi Council thing. I have reason to suspect that Imperius took at least a couple other smaller relics with him, but those have been identified as items concerned with Tythan and Je’daii history or, oddly enough, Force-healing. Comparatively harmless.”

“I don’t need some expensive education or Jedi trainin’ to know Rakata anything is dangerous in the wrong hands.” Korin picked up a stylus from the console and started spinning it around his fingers. “What’d they do with the Rakata thing they stole from Korriban?”

“I haven’t been able to determine that concretely yet. I expect we’ll find out when we confront Darok. I did some more snooping, and he’s made several trips out to a genetics research facility here on Manaan. Arkous has been here before as well. In fact, they’re both at the lab right now.”

Xaja glanced sharply at Korin, then back at Theron. “Do you have coordinates?”

“I can do you one better. I’ve already got a shuttle prepped and ready to go. I’d recommend being careful down there- the Selkath are protective of their secrets, and while security’s let Arkous and Darok come and go, I doubt they’ll greet you with only smiles.” Theron turned back around to check something on his console. “I’ll be keeping contact with you while you’re down there, but I do have one more contact coming to meet me here. She might have some additional insights we could all use.”

“She?” Korin questioned.

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you. But I’ll let you know when she gets here.” Theron nodded at what he saw on the console readouts, apparently satisfied, then looked back at his team. “Go find us some answers, and good luck.”

* * *

“To summarize,” Reanden said as he and Sorand walked down the corridor from the shuttle landing pad to the docks where Lana had arranged an underwater transport for them, “Arkous has been in contact with a Republic colonel. They coordinated the attacks to hide the fact that they were each looking to steal Rakata-era artifacts. And now they’re both here in a genetics lab on Manaan, possibly with those same Rakata relics.”

“That’s only a little bit worrying,” Sorand deadpanned behind the mask. “Rakata technology and relics are… strange, and dangerous at best. Talos and I did some studying on Belsavis- it’s fascinating stuff, but in the wrong hands could be catastrophic. Any idea who this mysterious contact is that Lana said she needed to go meet?”

“No names, but I’m guessing Republic affiliated, and she doesn’t want to admit that for fear that we’d draw conclusions about her loyalties to the Empire.” Reanden chuckled. “If only she knew about our connections to the Republic...”

“If she knew, we’d both be dead,” Sorand answered. “Besides, it makes sense that someone in the Republic would have gotten suspicious. The entirety of the Republic can’t be conspiring with Colonel Darok, can they?...”

“The entire population, no, but I suspect there’s a good number of people on-board with him. I dearly hope your brother and sister aren’t collaborating with them.” Reanden sighed as he unlocked the transport and stepped aside for Sorand to enter the small vessel first.

“Wouldn’t it be terribly ironic if they’re investigating their colonel at the same time that we are?” Sorand mused as he got himself settled into the copilot’s controls.

“With how our luck has been going over the last few weeks? I’d almost put money on it.”

“Ten credits says they’re down there, or have been recently.”

“Done.”

* * *

No, the Selkath were most assuredly not pleased with the presences of a rogue spacer and a Jedi Knight. Theron heard a grumble through the comms as the sounds of lightsabers stopped coming through once the blaster fire had ceased. “Why do I have a suspicion that the three of us might be responsible for the greatest diplomatic crisis on Manaan since Revan got himself arrested here three hundred years ago?” Xaja asked with a heavy sigh.

Theron winced. “Sorry.” He hoped that he sounded apologetic over the comms enough to appease the Jedi Master. “Maybe they’ll buy the whole ‘we’re chasing traitors’ thing.”

“An’ maybe Darok will bail us out himself,” Korin deadpanned. “Any more noise up head what you can track?”

Theron looked at the readout he was tracking. “Security chief’s a bit ahead, so you’re in for a fight there.”

“Yay.” Korin sounded about as thrilled as he would have been if he’d been suddenly told he was strong enough with the Force to be accepted for Jedi training… which was to say, not at all.

“Hang on…” Theron frowned at a flag that popped up on the feed and tapped to bring it up. “There’s also a prisoner being held there, somebody named Jakarro. I’ll bet he’s got some interesting stories he could share with us.”

“It’s worth looking into,” Xaja agreed. “Especially if we already have to go that way anyway. How far away is that?”

“Couple hundred metres. Keep following that hallway and take a left at the intersection, you can’t miss it.” Theron frowned again at another blip that suddenly popped up on his readout. “I’d be careful though. Apparently there’s an Imperial strike team here too. Might be on the same business as you, so maybe… I don’t know, don’t shoot first?”

There was a long pause. “Duly noted,” Xaja finally said, her voice tense. “Hopefully Darth Arkous didn’t call in backup.”

“I’ve been messing around with the lab’s communications, so with any luck, Darok and Arkous will be none the wiser-” Theron whirled at the sound of the office door opening. He recognized the blonde-haired woman who strode into the room like she owned the place from their brief, carefully-encrypted holocalls, but that still didn’t stop him from suspiciously looking down at the lightsaber on her hip. “Uh, contact’s here, back in a sec.”

* * *

Xaja glanced at Korin as Theron suddenly went quiet. “Want to bet that contact’s Imperial?” she quietly asked.

“Dude’s a spy. I’d be surprised if he didn’t have Imperial contacts.” Korin still frowned suspiciously at the ceiling. “Would have been nice to know we’re apparently gonna make Imperial contacts of our own too.”

“Maybe he didn’t know?” Xaja shrugged as Korin stepped in front of her to turn the corner- then yelped and suddenly jumped backwards as blaster fire peppered the air where he’d been standing.

The smuggler got off a couple of quick shots back as he darted back into cover and gave Xaja a scowl as the Jedi pressed herself to the wall behind him. “We’re definitely gonna suggest he give us more than two minutes’ warning next time.”

* * *

 A lot of people would grovel and bow out of the way of one of the Dark Council. Most of the Selkath did not qualify, including the group that had just taken up position down the corridor and around the corner. Reanden pushed Sorand behind him as one of their enemies fired a blaster down the corridor, and sent a couple of warning shots back. “How many in this group?”

“Two.” Sorand tilted his head as he scanned with the Force. “Both Force-users, one incredibly strong.” He hesitated. “It’s… it feels like it should be familiar.”

Reanden frowned, then tensed. He heard something… “Turn your lightsaber off,” he hissed.

Sorand drew himself out of his musings on the Force-presences he could sense, and gave his father an incredulous look that Reanden could feel despite the mask. “What?”

The agent glared at his son and made a slicing motion with his hand. “Saber off. I’m trying to listen!”

The Sith made a grumpy-sounding noise, but finally turned his blade off. The persistent humming noise beside Reanden finally stopped… letting him hear the echoes of the humming down the corridor. “They have lightsabers,” he whispered.

Sorand turned his head, frustration replaced with curiosity in his body language. “I haven’t seen Selkath carrying lightsabers,” he murmured. “Only blasters and vibroblades. You don’t think…”

“Possibly Jedi,” Reanden muttered. “If they’re from Tython, we might be kri-”

“You Imperial?” a voice called down the corridor in perfect Core World-accented Basic. Female, young sounding, and with a familiarity that tugged at Reanden’s memory.

The agent frowned. “You’re obviously not,” he called back, letting his Imperial accent show itself in his voice as he pushed away his memory’s naggings for the time being. “You’re not Selkath either, going by your language choice.”

“Haven’t met many Selkath who speak Basic, myself.” The female voice paused. “Heard a rumour there might be some of you in the area.”

“Hadn’t heard much about Jedi hanging around here,” Reanden answered. “What brings you down here?”

There was a pause. “Possibly the same thing that got you here.”

Reanden thought for a second and shrugged at Sorand. “Traitor hunting. You?”

“... Same. There’s a Republic soldier we’re looking for, might be working with a Sith Lord down here.”

“Colonel Darok and Darth Arkous,” Reanden realized.

“Yes, the very same.” The Jedi paused again, and Reanden heard muffled noises that sounded like a hurried, hushed conversation. “Might be worth both our time to work together on this.”

Reanden looked back at Sorand, and got a shrug in response. “We can work with that,” he called back as he holstered his blaster. “One of you want to come out so we can talk without yelling?”

“I can do that.” The Jedi sounded fairly calm, but Reanden was a good enough spy to recognize a trace of nervousness in her voice. The ever-persistent hum of her lightsaber vanished. “No weapons, Imperial, just a friendly chat.”

“No weapons,” Reanden agreed as he raised his hands and gestured for Sorand to stay back. No way in hell was he going to risk his youngest son’s life unnecessarily. “I’m coming out now, hands-first.”

“Okay.”

Reanden took a deep breath, then slowly walked around the corner, hands up and open where the Jedi could see them. Seconds later, the Jedi came around the corner, two lightsabers easily visible on her belt and gloved hands clearly visible under her short-sleeved robe. But Reanden stopped focusing on the dangers the Jedi possibly presented to him once he got a look at her face, framed by tied-back red hair. His heart leaped into his chest as he felt equal amounts of relief and joy and worry flood through him. “Xaja?” he asked.

The Jedi’s green eyes, all but identical to her mother’s, widened in shock. “How-?”

Behind Reanden, Sorand tensed at the name he heard his father say and came around the corner to see, in the same breath that a tall, blond-haired man in a rugged leather jacket came out behind Xaja. The spacer tensed as he saw the Sith, hand twitching for a blaster on what looked like instinct, then saw Reanden’s face and paled a shade. “Dad?”

* * *

 Theron whirled back to the console when he heard Korin’s question over the comms. Behind him, Lana Beniko’s amber eyes widened. “What the…”

* * *

 A tense silence descended upon the corridor as all four people stared at each other, broken only by the Sith. _Darth Imperius_ , Xaja recognized by the mask, followed by _Sorand. Little brother?_ The man with him… _Dad?_ His face felt familiar, like she’d seen him once before in her blurry memory. And he looked like Korin, only older and darker and more worn with a hard life… “Korin?” Imperius whispered, shock radiating from him in the Force, an emotion he didn’t even bother trying to conceal.

“How do you…” Korin shook his head and stared tensely at the mask. “Prove it.”

There was a pause before Imperius slowly reached up and undid the mask, removing it and the dark hood in one smooth motion to let his face be shown. Yes, that was the face Xaja remembered from their brief interactions on Voss- dark hair in a nerftail, brown eyes wide open in disbelief, and such a young face. “Is it… you’re actually here…”

“... Anyone could claim a name,” Korin finally said, but he was wavering- Xaja could sense it. “How do I know you ain’t just claiming to be my baby brother?"

The Sith paused for a long moment. “When I was eight years old and you were ten, one of your friends got a pet gizka- he never said how. The gizka had babies, and you got the idea to adopt one and keep it in your closet without Mum knowing, and made me cover for you when she got suspicious. In return, you let me name our pet baby gizka.” 

There was another long silence before Korin spoke again. “And I can’t believe you named our gizka Carth.”

“It was a perfectly fine name!” Sorand retorted. “Better than your idea of Waggle-Butt the Magnificent!”

There was a sound over the comm in Xaja’s ear that sounded like Theron had just choked on something. Korin ignored it, staring at his brother with complete focus and a tiny smirk on his face. “... And who did Mum blame when she finally found Carth Waggle-Butt?”

“Dad.” Sorand’s face stretched in a grin as he gestured to the old agent standing beside him. “And it took her only two days to find Carth, who wound up abandoning your closet for my bed in like, a week.”

“For the record, I’m still not sure how that wound up being _my_ fault…” the man added with a sigh, but his face still softened with a smile.

“Sneakiness is genetic, Dad,” Korin said, but there was still a grin on his face as he stepped forward, hands gradually lowering to a relaxed position. “I missed you, Sorand.”

“I thought you were dead for years,” Sorand confessed. “It wasn’t until after I ascended and Dad found me again that I knew you were alive…” He slowly approached his siblings, standing down from tense and wary to hopeful. “The galaxy was awful without you in it.”

“I thought you’d died with Mum.”

“... Kriff, I missed you, brother.”

“Missed you more!” Korin finally lunged forward as Sorand rushed to meet him in the middle of the corridor, grabbing his brother in a tight hug that had been twelve years in the making. “There’s just one more thing I gotta know, little brother…”

“How did I survive the raid and wind up on the Dark Council?” Sorand asked.

“... Okay, there’s two more things I gotta know. But in seriousness…” Korin pulled a little back from the hug and gave his brother a critiquing look. “... When the _hell_ did you get taller than me?!”

The agent, who Xaja now felt she could identify as Reanden Taerich, gave both of his sons a contented look, joy and relief radiating from him in the Force, before he slowly approached her. “You look far better than the last time I saw you, little one,” he finally said as he looked the tiny Jedi up and down. “I’m glad you made it home all right.”

And suddenly, Xaja felt the knowledge of where she’d seen him flash through her memory. “You were the one who helped me flee the Emperor’s station,” she whispered. “You and Scourge…”

“We both wanted you free for different reasons,” Reanden quietly said. “His were more… pragmatic. I just wanted confirmation that one of my children was alive and safe. Losing your brothers…” He carefully reached out a hand, and Xaja watched it carefully until it settled on her shoulder- gentle, yet she could sense a strength in it, despite his obvious blindness to the Force. “Your mother would be so proud of you,” he whispered. “I know I am.”

Xaja smiled softly as she decided her father didn’t wish any harm on her. “Thanks… Father? Dad? Agent? What do I call you?”

“Your brothers had me for their first years of life. You, obviously, didn’t.” Reanden shrugged, the gesture making her think of Korin. “I’d like for you to eventually be comfortable with calling me Dad, but as long as it’s not ‘that Force-damned schutta-spawned son of a Hutt’, I’m okay with whatever you want to call me.” That smile he gave her reached his eyes, more open and mirthful than one might have expected of an Intelligence operative.

Despite her unfamiliarity with dealing with any members of her family outside of Korin, Xaja smiled. “Okay. I can work with-”

Footsteps charged up another corridor. Fury and rage pressed themselves on Xaja’s senses as she felt another group of Selkath security personnel approaching at a run. She tensed, turning as she sensed Korin and Sorand both alerting to the incoming peril. “Okay, right, still on Manaan and not somewhere safe.”

Reanden turned, the affectionate fatherly figure he’d been displaying shifting into battle-ready operative as he unholstered his blaster rifle. “I take it the Selkath have been about as receptive to you two as they have been to us.”

“I’m guessing you two aren’t working with Arkous then?” Xaja asked as she reached for her lightsabers.

Sorand snorted when he heard his sister. “Hardly. We want answers for why and how they did what they organized for Tython and Korriban as badly as you do. Hopefully they haven’t heard us coming yet.”

“Our contact on the surface has been scrambling the facility’s comms, so hopefully they’re still unaware.” Korin drew both blasters. “He’s also mentioned a prisoner down here we should meet. Apparently he’s in the security office up ahead.”

“We can work with that.” Sorand drew his lightsaber and started to grab for his mask, but was interrupted by the Selkath running around a corner and opening fire. “Ahh, kriff it,” he muttered as he abandoned the mask and started streaming lightning through his fingers, giving enough space for Xaja to Force-speed into the fray under cover of blaster fire from their father and brother.

* * *

“.... That’s what he looks like?” Lana stared at the one security holocam image that Theron had managed to freeze that adequately showed Darth Imperius’ face. “I suspected he was young, but… he looks like he’s barely an adult!”

“Apparently the Force is with him, or something like that. Isn't that what you Force-users say?” Theron shook his head. “How did we end up working with an entire family on this?”

“It must be the will of the Force. There’s no way this could have all been predicted.” Lana frowned. “Did you already know that Master Taerich is apparently Agent Taerich’s daughter?”

“Captain Taerich said as much. He claimed Cipher Nine was his father, he and Master Taerich had already concluded they were siblings, and apparently she’d met Imperius already and he knew who she was- before he became Imperius, anyway.”

“Hmmm. And little wonder Imperius never mentioned having family, especially not Jedi kin. It looks poorly for Dark Lords of the Sith to have Jedi in the family, as I’m sure you can imagine. I’m honestly surprised he kept his father hidden for so long.” Lana shook her head. “A Jedi sister and a Republic privateer son…”

“I’m still going on about a father from Imperial Intelligence and a brother on the Dark Council. A baby brother at that.” Theron looked back down at the console as the little blips for his team entered the security chief’s office and immediately engaged in contact.

“It does feel oddly appropriate that a cross-faction family should be the ones investigating Darok and Arkous’ activities,” Lana said as she leaned over to watch the security holofeeds. “That Wookiee in the cell is the one named Jakarro?”

“I expect so.” Theron watched as the security chief went down from a knife in his neck as Agent Reanden emerged from stealth to make the killing blow. “Master Taerich’s very good at getting answers out of people. I’m sure she’ll convince him to talk.”

“And if she fails, her father specialized in it.”

* * *

 Jakarro and C2-D4 had proven most cooperative, given their humiliation at being backstabbed and imprisoned by Darok and Arkous. If there hadn’t already been enough suspicion that the Sith and Republic soldier were working together, the Wookiee’s experiences were very convincing evidence of a treasonous collaboration.

“If anyone asks,” Reanden had said as he’d led his offspring down another underwater tunnel to the heart of the research facility, “we’re only working together because our respective traitors are apparently together as well and it’s more convenient for us to cooperate.”

“I’m sure our contacts on the surface will back us up,” Xaja said with a skyward glance in the direction that Lana and the Republic agent (who’d been named as Theron) were presumably tracking their progress.

“I like having backup plans in place.” Reanden paused by a locked door and started working on a standard bypass for the electronic lock. “For being such a top secret facility, their security systems that aren’t living Selkath are terrible.”

“Agreed,” said Lana’s male contact over the comms. “Right door, looks like the lab’s on the other side, operated by one Gorima.”

“Not for long,” Reanden muttered as he successfully got the lock disengaged. “You two sense anything?” he added at the Sith and the Jedi standing by.

Sorand’s brow furrowed in concentration under the hood he’d drawn back up over his head. “Two lifeforms, one of which feels comatose. The other’s non-combatant. There’s something else, but…”

“It’s scrambled, for lack of a better term,” Xaja finished. “Could be another Selkath adherent with the Force, or possibly Darth Arkous. I can’t tell anything for sure.”

Reanden frowned. “Hmm. Be ready for anything.” The door slid open, and the team entered the lab. The only occupants were two Selkath- one in a doctor’s coat, bending over a table that held a cyborg version of another.

The doctor didn’t even glance up when the door opened. “ _I’m not finished yet,_ ” he growled in his native language. “ _Tell Arkous and Darok that they’ll be ready when they’re ready._ ”

He looked up in a hurry when he heard a blaster being drawn, and seemed to pale when he saw Korin’s slightly manical grin. “Arkous and Darok, you say? Fascinating. We’d like to hear more.”

“ _... You’re not working with them, then._ ” The Selkath seemed to consider his options. “ _That means you’re not constantly nagging for status updates._ ” He stepped around the table with the unconscious work-in-progress cyborg, making sure to keep his hands visible. “ _Tell me, have you ever seen the marvels of Rakata technology? Have you seen what it can do to a living person?_ ”

“Yep,” all four chorused in the same breath, then looked at each other in equal parts confusion and suspicion.

“ _Oh._ ” The Selkath seemed to deflate for a second. “ _But have you seen this? No, of course you haven’t, only I have perfected this. Did you know that one may use Rakata technology to create cyborgs with self-healing capabilities? Imagine the vast scope of such an army!_ ”

“Self healing cyborgs?” Sorand craned his neck around to look at the cyborg on the table. “I haven’t decided if I’m repulsed or intrigued.”

“An army of them?” Xaja frowned, ignoring her brother’s words. “What do Darok and Arkous need an army of cyborgs with Rakata tech for-?”

“ _Who cares?!_ ” Jakarro came flying into the lab, having found a bowcaster that he was now aiming at the terrified Selkath. “ _He won’t be making any more when I’m done with him!_ ”

“ _Please!_ ” cried the Selkath, whom Reanden concluded was Gorima, as he cowered behind another cot. “ _You have to understand, you were such a fine specimen, so marvelous for experimentation…_ ”

“ _I am not a lab gizka!_ ” roared the furious Wookiee.

“Neither am I!” See-Two added, eyes flashing with the words. “Make him bleed, Jakarro!”

“Oi, listen, Jakarro!” Korin finally shouted as he stepped in front of the angry Wookiee, risking his own neck. “Yeah, the guy’s a gutless spineless mynock of a mad scientist, but you don’t have to murderize him like that. You’re better ‘n that, right?”

“I’m less concerned with the morality of the situation,” Sorand added dryly, “and more with the simple fact that if Jakarro rips him into shreds, we won’t be able to get any information out of him about Arkous and Darok’s plans. And that would make me very, _very_ displeased.” It sometimes paid to have a son on the Dark Council who could scare the hell out of people just by talking, Reanden decided.

Jakarro scowled, but reluctantly stood down. “ _Fine. We do it your way for now. But if he so much as looks at me again..._ ”

“Patience, my hairy friend,” Reandren said soothingly as Gorima went an interesting shade of green under his blue-grey hide. “We’ll get this whole situation sorted in due course-”

A portion of the wall suddenly started moving with the whine of hydraulics. It was a covered window, Reanden realized as he turned around, eyes widening when he saw the two men standing on the other side of the transparisteel. A Sith Lord with whom he was far too familiar, and a human in full Republic Armed Forces armour. _Arkous and Darok._

“Hmmph,” Darok grunted, arms crossing over his broad chest. “This explains all the dead guards.”

“Ahhh,” Arkous said with a cruel grin on his red face, “I thought I’d sensed your presence, Imperius. But working with a Jedi, of all people? At least you picked a pretty one.” Xaja tensed up at the Sith’s words, eyes blazing.

“Oh, that’s rich, Arkous,” Sorand growled. “How long have you been conspiring with your friend there? Long enough to figure out how to hide your trail after Korriban burned? You’re awful at your job.”

“Speaks the Sith who didn’t think to give himself a contingency plan getting out of here.” Darok shook his head. “I told you two to let it go, Master Taerich, Captain. This doesn’t concern you. Let me guess- you dragged Shan into this as well? Pity the three of you can’t follow directions.”

“And you missed the part where this concerned me the minute my home burned. You’re not my master, I don’t answer to you,” Xaja snarled as she took a step toward the glass.

“Ahh, but you’ll bow to our master soon enough once we save the galaxy,” Arkous said with a smirk as Darok started moving out of sight. “Or rather… you would have if you four hadn’t been so foolish as to get involved.”

“Kriff you, Sith,” the Jedi snapped, and she would have lunged at the window if Reanden hadn’t grabbed her arm to hold her back. Definitely got her mother’s temper. “You will give us answers for what you’re doing here!”

“Hmmm.” Arkous pretended to think about it. “No, I don’t believe I shall. Gorima,” he added, brushing the strike teams aside like mild nuisances, “thank you for forwarding your research data along. Your Infinite Army will serve us well. You can keep the prototypes.” He raised a remote and clicked a button, and the wall started to slide closed again.

“Kriffing coward!” Sorand shouted as he moved so he could keep Arkous in his sights. “You will answer for this!”

“Will I, Imperius? Who’s going to make me?” Arkous mockingly waved as the facility suddenly shook and the window sealed itself shut. “Feel free to die before the facility reaches crush depth- it will probably be more comfortable that way.”

Reanden felt himself drain pale as he recognized the sound of the explosion that rocked the lab. “Blast it- we need to move,” he snapped at his children (and Jakarro). “That’s a detonite charge. They’re going to bring the place down, and us with it!”

Korin’s face went white as Gorima fled the lab unnoticed. “We’ll never make it back to the shuttles in time. There’s gotta be emergency pods somewhere on this level.”

“There were,” came Lana’s voice over the comms. “Unfortunately, they’ve all been ejected. Darok was very good at tying up loose ends.”

“What’s our next option then?” Reanden asked as he looked at the ceiling, trying to not imagine the tons of seawater waiting to crush the five of them where they stood. “Swimming to the surface?”

“I’ve managed to procure another craft for just such an eventuality. But you’ll have to hurry, that facility won’t hold together for very long. Move!”

“But be careful,” added the male contact. “I’m picking up one of those ‘prototypes’ on the scanners, and it’s a big one. If it catches up to you, you’re in trouble. Hurry!”

Reanden looked back at the exit to the facility, then at his pale-faced (and in Xaja’s case, shaking with fury) offspring. “You heard them. Let’s move!”

They almost made it to the escape craft when the twelve-foot cyborg caught up to them.

* * *

 “Why isn’t anything ever easy?” Korin complained as he ran around the scorched body of the Selkath cyborg that had made a valiant effort at trying to kill them all. It had almost succeeded, too- Korin had his own singe marks, and Xaja was holding a bleeding wound on her arm, and Reanden was holding his rib cage like he’d been injured when thrown a few metres. _Dad’s not young anymore, that probably did a number on him._

“If things were easy, we wouldn’t need people like you to do the impossible.” The comms terminal beside the exit hatch hummed as it projected the image of a fair-haired human woman in dark clothes. The same Imperial-accented voice drifted from the machine as she typed into a console on her end. “Hold on, the docking sequence is almost finished.”

“You’re a Sith,” Korin said as he caught sight of the lightsaber hilt on the woman’s belt, and promptly kicked himself for being stupidly observant as Sorand gave him an exasperated look.

“And you’re quite observant, Captain Obvious,” the Sith added. “I’m sure if you can work with your brother, you can work with me perfectly fine, or would you prefer to swim?”

Xaja elbowed Korin sharply in the stomach before he could answer. “We’ll take what we can get. If my brother and father trust you enough to work with you, I can work with that.”

“Ah, good, a fellow pragmatist.” The blonde tapped something, and the door slid open. “Your shuttle awaits. Hurry!”

* * *

 The shuttle broke the surface of Manaan’s seas, right beside the outbuilding that served as Theron’s current base of operations. Xaja gasped in open relief as the hatch popped open, allowing her to jump out and onto relatively dry land.

Jakarro roared indignantly as he started clambering out of the tiny, cramped craft. “ _I don’t know what you were complaining about, Jedi. You were the one sitting on my knees!_ ”

“And you enjoyed it, Jakarro,” See-Two added. If a droid could leer, Xaja suspected it would be doing so right now. _Never thought I'd be creeped out by half of a protocol droid..._

“ _Shut up, droid!_ ”

“The cramping wasn’t bad,” Xaja gasped out as Korin jumped to the ground beside her. “It was the smell!”

“Yeah, I coulda told you about wet Wookiee smell, but then you probably would have taken your chances with swimming.” Korin coughed as he turned to give Reanden a hand out. “It’s worse in a confined space.”

“You don’t say, son?” Reanden grouchily muttered as he accepted the assistance out. “It gets worse when you’ve got cranial implants to enhance your senses. ALL of your senses.”

“You can deactivate implants,” Sorand grumbled as he clambered out last. “You can’t really do the same with the Force!”

“You at least had a mask, little brother,” Xaja muttered.

“And that mask does nothing beyond inhibiting my vision and making me look scary, otherwise I’d have put it back on.” Sorand scowled. “I share a ship with a Dashade and an ex-pirate with a lower than average appreciation for personal hygiene. Trust me, I know the mask does nothing for smell.”

Xaja paused and turned to give her brother a shocked look. “You share a ship with a what?”

“A Dashade. It’s a species of alien that-”

“No, I heard what you said, but… _what?!_ ”

“Oh. Uhh…” Sorand shifted his feet. “It’s a long story. You have any idea what type of _osik_ is buried on Korriban still?”

“Enough,” Reanden finally said, interrupting the discussion. “We’ve got contacts still waiting for us. We’d best let them know we made it intact.”

“If no longer sane?” Korin asked as he gingerly poked at a burn on his hand.

“Son, part of Clan Taerich is the fact that none of us are actually sane. Do you remember your uncle?”

“I wish I didn’t…”

Xaja shook her head at her family’s discussions and started walking, knowing the others were right behind her. Theron’s makeshift office was only a few metres away, and within a minute she rounded the corner to see the Republic spy warily eyeing the blonde Sith woman who’d sent them the escape craft. “Look,” Theron was saying, “I’m not saying that there’s a potential disaster in the making here, but if we both put our weapons down we’ll have much less of a chance of problems…”

“That can hardly be necessary. I’m surely not that intimidating, am I?” The blonde turned when she heard Xaja’s bootsteps. “Ah, good, you made it. All of you,” she added at the four others entering the room behind the Jedi.

“This,” Theron said with a gesture in the Sith’s direction, “is Lana Beniko. Dedicated Imperial citizen and, uh… fully armed Sith Lord.” He glanced back at Sorand and went a tad paler. “One of two in the room.”

“I’m hardly going to attack you now,” Sorand said with a sigh as he rolled his eyes.

“Uh, right. Yeah. I don’t think we had time for a formal introduction over the comms. I’m Theron Shan, Republic SIS.”

Reanden tilted his head, clearly quite intrigued. “An SIS agent and a leftover from Imperial Intelligence in the same room and not trying to kill each other? This sounds like the beginning of a terrible joke.”

“Not as bad as a Jedi in a room with two Sith Lords.” Xaja glanced back at Lord Beniko. “It’s good to meet you, Lord Beniko. We appreciate the rescue you pulled for us down there.”

“Lana is perfectly fine, Master Taerich. Theron and I briefed each other on your respective names already.”

“And the situation. As I’m sure your father and brother have already told you-”

“Wait.” Korin blinked. “Ahh, kriff. You heard all of that?”

Theron rubbed the back of his neck. “We, uh, saw the holocam feeds. And none of you turned your comms off. Seriously, Waggle-Butt the Magnificent? That poor gizka.”

“... Oh.” Korin went crimson as Sorand snicked in an entirely un-Sith-like fashion and Reanden facepalmed. “To be entirely fair, I was ten years old at the time!”

“Uh-huh. That’s still still completely ruined my mental image of you.” Theron shook his head. “Anyway, Arkous has been playing Lana and her people in much the same way as Darok did to us. She’s shared a lot of valuable intel already. Add that to what you found in the lab, and we’ve got confirmation they’re working together for some third party.”

“I have reason to believe they’re Revanites,” Lana added, reluctantly tearing her gaze away from where she’d been staring at Sorand’s face. The younger Sith never took his mask off anywhere, it seemed, but hadn’t bothered trying to put it back on in the shuttle. “Cultists following the idol of Revan himself. We’d previously thought them to be only a nuisance on Dromund Kaas, but they’ve gained significant power in recent years- and now, they’re in the Republic too.”

“How is this the first I’ve heard of this?” Reanden asked with a frown.

“I only just received confirmation for myself while you were down there,” Lana said, gesturing to the datapad on her belt.

“Revan?” Korin frowned. “I’ve heard you mentioning him once or twice, Xaja, but nothin’ more. He some sorta important historical figure?”

“You could say that,” Theron said with a sigh. “He was a Jedi, then he was a Sith, then he was a Jedi again, all around three hundred years ago. I’ll send you a history file. In any case, we know the Revanites have people all throughout the Republic and Empire chains of command, which means we have no idea who we can really trust on either side.”

“Except for, of course, us.” Sorand frowned. “If they’re as high up enough as the Dark Council, we can only assume they’ve got people in the Jedi Council, the Senate, or the Republic’s military leaders…”

“ _Who cares?_ ” Jakarro’s patience had finally run out as he marched around the humans to poke at Theron’s jacket-clad shoulder irritably. “ _Droid, tell them this conversation bores me!_ ”

See-Two made a cough. “Erm, yes. My master Jakarro-”

“Has the attention span of a Jawa,” Xaja interrupted. “And this is what’s left of his translator, See-Two Dee-Four.”

“Former interpreter for Her Imminence, Queen Lina of Onderon!” See-Two piped up.

Theron sighed and looked up at the ceiling as though seeking patience, then turned to glare. “Yeah, we got that earlier. All of it.”

“ _If you understand me, then you know that Arkous and Darok betrayed me and left me to die!_ ” Jakarro bellowed. “ _I will not be satisfied until I’ve tasted their blood!_ ”

“Yes,” Lana agreed, with a far more soothing tone of voice than Xaja had ever imagined a Sith to be capable of. “I saw your list of underworld contacts earlier, those whom Captain Korin doesn’t know. It’s an impressive list. Could any of them help us locate where they’ve gone?”

“ _Of course- but I do the talking!_ ”

“Superb!” Lana smiled amicably. “Then if Theron agrees…?”

“Sounds good.” Theron nodded. “Go ahead and prep the ship. I’ll cover our tracks and catch up.”

Lana nodded, then to Xaja’s surprise, offered a bow to the four. “It’s been a pleasure meeting you, and I look forward to working with you. Master Taerich, Captain- may the Force ever serve you. My lord, Agent Taerich- I’ll be in touch when I can.”

“Very well,” Sorand agreed, and stepped to the side. “Be safe, both of you. The Empire and the galaxy need you.”

“Not as much as they require you, but I appreciate the sentiment.” Lana smiled and took her leave, Jakarro in tow.

Theron watched the pair leave, then turned his eyes back to Clan Taerich. “We’d better all travel separately,” he said. “If the Revanites are following us, they won’t know who to track first.”

Reanden nodded approvingly. “Wise idea. They do teach you useful things with the SIS, I suppose.”

“One or two things,” Theron smirked. He eyed the older agent up and down, and got the same stare in return.

Xaja sighed as both spies continued sizing each other up, sensing the silent inner critiques both of them were making about the other. “If the Revanites realize they’ve failed to kill us,” she spoke up, interrupting the staring match, “won’t that make them more dangerous?”

“Not necessarily,” Theron said as he finally looked away from Reanden to make eye contact with her. “I think if they see you visibly out and in the open, it’ll throw them off their course, force them to alter their plans- and that’s where they’ll make mistakes.” He glanced around the group to the exit, then lightly shrugged. “I’d better get moving. Watch your back out there- all of you.” He stuffed his hands in his jacket pockets and moved out, although Xaja still noticed him giving Sorand a particularly wide berth. At least he was a little more subtle in his curious look at the Sith Lord’s visible face than Lana had been.

Xaja waited until the spy was out of earshot, then looked back at the rest of her family. Her family… a month ago, she hadn’t known any of these people were alive, and now she had a father and two brothers. “What’s our next step?”

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but your SIS friend there has a good point.” Reanden leaned back against a chair. “Running around acting as per usual… whatever that looks like for you two… might cause the Revanites to panic and fumble a step. Unfortunately, the odds of all four of us being watched closely just increased exponentially. We won’t be able to easily associate with each other out there.”

“We could beforehand?” Korin snorted. “Why wouldn’t Darth Imperius be besties with a Jedi Master in any other circumstance?”

“You know what I mean, brat.” Reanden swatted Korin’s shoulder. “I’ll give you both my frequency in case you need to reach me in an emergency, but I’d still advise minimal contact unless absolutely necessary, or until Theron or Lana contacts us.”

“It’s reasonable.” Xaja nodded. “What about you two? Won’t it be dangerous to associate with each other?”

“I kinda already laid claim to him as a personal servant or agent of sorts, at least as far as the rest of the population is concerned.” Sorand shrugged as he pulled his mask off his belt and turned it over in his hands. “If Darth Imperius wants to speak with an Imperial officer who may or may not have worked for Intelligence in the past, that’s his business, as everyone else in Imperial space really should know at this point. You two, on the other hand… Jedi don’t usually throw their rank around like that, do they?”

“No, but it’s not unheard of for Jedi to have… associates outside of the Order.” Xaja glanced over at Korin. “We’ve been seen talking enough times after the Tython-Korriban incident that people shouldn’t look too strangely at us for knowing each other’s names. My Padawan and the rest of my crew know that we’re siblings, but they’ve been sworn to silence.”

“As has my crew,” Korin nodded.

“My one apprentice knows about Dad,” Sorand said. “And Dad’s let one of his crew know about me. But we try to keep things as quiet as we can around even them and will keep the news on you two out of their ears as much as we can. It’s… the Empire. You know how it goes.”

Xaja nodded her understanding. “Got it. Whatever happens out there for both of you… be careful.”

“You as well. It took me twelve years to find your brothers and twenty-five to find you after giving you up. I don’t plan on losing any of you again.” Reanden approached Xaja and gave her shoulder a squeeze, and nodded at Korin. “Stay safe, and reach me if it’s urgent. I expect we’ll see each other again soon though, one way or another.”

“You got it. Take care, old man.” Korin paused to give Sorand another sideways hug around the shoulders, pointedly ignoring Reanden’s glare. “And whatever happens, next time, I’m dragging you to a cantina and we’re checking out girls.”

Sorand snorted with laughter even as his cheeks flared. “Yeah, good luck with that. But seriously- be careful, brother. I missed you badly enough the first time around.”

“We’ll be careful. You do the same.” Korin waved over his shoulder as he and Xaja finally left the room, but the smuggler didn’t even make it all the way back to their ships before grabbing his sister’s shoulders and grinning from ear to ear. “I can’t believe it. Twelve years gone and he’s gone and made himself a Sith Lord. I’m so proud of the little twerp!”

“Forget that- he's on the Dark Council. If it wasn’t for the fact that he’s a Sith and I’m a Jedi, I’d be proud of him too.”

“Come on, you’re secretly proud.”

“... Okay, fine, a little bit. Don’t tell any other Jedi I said that.” Xaja patted Korin’s shoulder as she turned to find her own ship. She could feel Kira’s worry radiating through the Force and knew she had to go reassure her student that all was well… all things considered. “Be careful, little brother.”

“You too, sis.” Korin flicked off a lazy salute and vanished up the ramp of his freighter.

**Author's Note:**

> For those of you following me on FFN (same username), this is a revamp of The Family Business that takes place before "Last Hope" and "Outtakes". I'll be predominantly posting here for this one, I think. "Last Hope" and "Outtakes" will be crossposted here soon enough!


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